Hard on the heels of his first professional victory at the Volta ao Algarve in February comes Paul Seixas’s first WorldTour win, and it only underlined his multi-faceted talent.
While his previous wins have come in hilly road races, the 19-year-old Decathlon CMA CGM rider’s victory on Monday in the stage one TT at the Itzulia Basque Country demonstrated his ability against the clock. Following a fastest time set by GC rival Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), Seixas led through both time checks to take a resounding 23-second win.
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Speaking to his team after the race, Seixas expressed his delight and said how much he enjoyed time trialling: “I’m very happy – this is the result I was hoping for, of course, but I didn’t think I’d have such a big lead. It’s really a nice surprise. That said, I think I managed the time trial well. This is my first WorldTour victory, [in] a discipline I really love, one I’ve been working on since my junior days with my coach and my team.
Seixas now sits at the top of the general classification of the six-stage race, which finishes on Saturday following a brace of mountain stages. He leads Vauquelin by those 23 seconds, with Felix Großschartner (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) a further three seconds back. There is a mountain stage today too – the only one of the race with a summit finish. It takes the riders 164km from Pamplona to Lekunberri, and Seixas is likely to face attacks on his lead from multiple sides.
