Paul Seixas exuded a hefty dose of confidence after winning his first WorldTour stage on Monday at Itzulia Basque Country. Along with the stage 1 time trial victory, he scored all the classification jerseys on the awards podium, including his first-ever leader’s jersey for a top-level stage race.
His Decathlon CMA CGM team called the time trial effort “flawless”. He called the bountiful day “a wonderful surprise”. Seixas said he expected to ride fast and win, but he didn’t expect to win by so much on the hilly 13.8km course in Bilbao.
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He’s now in the driver’s seat of the Itzulia Basque Country as a result, with 23 seconds over Kévin Vauquelin (Ineos Grenadiers), a 27-second gap on Felix Großschartner (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and 28 seconds ahead of two-time winner Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). Even more impressive were the times that need to be closed by two former race champions, with Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) 51 seconds down,and Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), 1:01 back. Then there is Tirreno-Adriatico winner Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) who is 1:16 in arrears.
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