Paul Seixas is being pitched as France’s best hope in a generation to win the Tour de France.
The 19-year-old only added to the weight of expectation with a resounding victory in his debut appearance at La Flèche Wallonne.
Although the team is yet to confirm his full race calendar for the year, the expectations of a nation that hasn’t had a winner in the men’s race since 1985 are building around his potential Tour appearance this summer.
Here are five numbers behind the young rider’s extraordinary hype train.
19
The young Seixas turned 19 in September 2025.
Winning a race as prestigious as Flèche Wallonne so young, and so early in a career, is highly unusual.
In fact, Seixas is the youngest winner in the race’s 90-year history, and only the second rider to win in their debut outing.
He had never raced the Mur de Huy before this week, yet still produced one of the fastest ascents ever recorded on the climb.
7
Seixas already has seven wins to his name in 2026.
They include taking the overall win, plus the mountains, points and youth classifications – yes, all four! – at the Itzulia Basque Country.
He also won three individual stages in that race and now has a coveted Ardennes Classic to his name – not to mention coming second to Pogi at Strade Bianche.
That’s a decent showing for the start of a young season, and career.
0
Remarkably, given the extraordinary hype around Seixas, he has yet to start a Grand Tour.
If he does ride this year’s Tour and performs as well as expected – or, at least hoped – he would be doing so without the usual progression pathway riders follow towards the gruelling demands of three-week racing.
Even last year’s breakout Tour star, Oscar Onley, had ridden the Tour in 2024, finishing 39th on GC before improving his standings to fourth overall in 2025. The Scotsman also lined up at the 2023 Vuelta, but dropped out on the second stage.
41
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot delivered a much-needed home victory at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes.
But in the men’s event, it has been 41 years since a French winner, when Bernard Hinault claimed his fifth and final title in 1985.
Contemporary near-misses from Romain Bardet and Julian Alaphilippe caused heartbreak almost worthy of national mourning, so the pressure for a good result – if he starts – will weigh almost intolerably on Seixas’ shoulders.
22,000
“You’re the next Hinault, the chosen one, but won't someone think of me? Please don’t sign for UAE.”
Inspired by rumours he may leave for UAE after, among other things, his brother, Nino, was spotted riding in team kit, these are the closing lines of Killow’s heartfelt appeal to Seixas.
At the time of writing, the post has 22,300 likes on Instagram – and the song has even been extended to a full track on Spotify.
The idea of Seixas leaving a French team so early in his career has already become a talking point at the highest levels, with the French president reported to have taken an interest in ensuring he remains with the Lille-based Decathlon CMA-CGM.
