The seemingly irresistible rise of Paul Seixas to the highest levels of the sport took what was arguably its biggest step yet this week in the Itzulia Basque Country as the 19-year-old Frenchman conquered his first WorldTour stage wins – three of them – and the overall in one fell swoop.
Having crushed the opposition on the opening two days in succession and in very different disciplines of a time trial and a high mountain stage, the Decathlon CMA CGM racer then went on to lead the Itzulia from beginning to end.
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The conclusion was simply devastating: three stages wins, the points, mountains and best young riders classifications, and the overall, by 2:30 on Tour de France podium finisher Lipowitz. The Itzulia was France’s first WorldTour overall stage race win since 2007, when Christophe Moreau outpaced Cadel Evans by a scant 14 seconds to win the Criterium du Dauphiné for a second time in his career.
This was also Seixas’ first WorldTour victory, too, and coming in a year when he had already taken a stage and second in the Volta ao Algarve, victory in the Faun Ardèche and second in Strade Bianche. By Saturday evening and Seixas victory in the rain-soaked town of Bergara, the vastly more experienced top young racers like Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), winner of Itzulia in 2024, and Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), runner-up in the Giro d’Italia, both had abandoned Itzulia, through illness or injury. But critically, when both had quit, they were several minutes down on Seixas: even before they abandoned, then, his dominance had already been abundantly clear.
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