Pogačar wins Liège-Bastogne-Liège but has a new rival.
19 year old Frenchman Paul Seixas showcases his immense talent. Look out, World Tour.
Côte de la Redoute. World Champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) attacks from the bottom and everyone dies but one man: the 19 year old French sensation Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM)
For the full 1.6 kilometers up the Redoute, Seixas sticks to Pogačar’s wheel. The grade averages over 9% and everyone else has been dropped and dropped hard. Yet Seixas hangs on, the kid matching the Slovenian’s massive power output.
It’s a four-minute effort at an estimated 575 watts. It’s the fastest ascent of the Redoute by 12 seconds. This is classic Pogačar only this time he’s not solo. Now he has company, a new adversary and perhaps, eventually, an heir apparent.
The nearest chaser is at 30 seconds, then 45 seconds, then over a minute. You need a helicopter and a long lens to find them way back there. Nobody is catching these two dominant riders.
Now there are only two questions left: who will take the victory and why in Hell is the young Seixas trading pulls with the superstar who has already won three editions of Liège-Bastogne-Liège and just about every Monument and Grand Tour.
Why is the Frenchman going to the front — sometimes for over twenty seconds at a time — when the smart, textbook, tactical play is to give Pogačar zero help, sit on the wheel. and then try to beat him in a finish line sprint?
There are several possible answers:
1 He’s astonishingly overconfident.
2 He’s so damn excited to be hanging with Pogačar that he can’t think straight.
3 He wants to show his class by beating Pogačar fair & square, like a true gentleman.
4 His radio earpiece is broken and he can’t hear his Director Sportive screaming “DO NOT WORK WITH POGACǍR!!!!!!
The two American race commentators, Rob Roll and Christian Vande Velde, are beside themselves. They can’t believe Seixas is doing even one pedal stroke of work. Flabbergasted, shocked, wondering WTF.
Same POV from former Vuelta a Expana winner, American, Chris Horner on his Butterfly Effect Youtube channel. “You do not go pull for pull with a legend,” says Horner. Seixas earns Horner’s most damning put-down: “a knucklehead.”
Whatever the reasons — perhaps all four -- Seixas did work with Pogačar, and on the final power grind up the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons he learned that yes, indeed, that was a singularly bad idea.
The World Champion finally breaks him, quickly opening a sizable gap that only grows bigger on the run-in to the finish line.
So a fabulous, well-deserved chapeau to Paul Seixas — we will be watching his astonishing talent for years to come. But next time, you know, just a thought — don’t work with Tadej Pogačar. Because he will work you over.