Paul Seixas sprung late on the Mur de Huy to win La Flèche Wallonne on his debut at the Ardennes Classic, the biggest victory of his nascent career.
The Decathlon CMA CGM rider timed his decisive attack late on the steep finish in Belgium, leaving it to the final 200m to put daylight between him and his rivals. At 19 years and 210 days, he is the youngest-ever winner of the race in its 90-year history, by almost two years. He also bounced back from coming off his bike at some point on Wednesday, and then flew up the Mur in under three minutes.
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The win was Seixas’s seventh of the season, following victories at the Volta ao Algarve, the Faun Ardèche-Classic, and three stage wins and the overall at Itzulia Basque Country. The hype machine was already in overdrive for the emerging force of cycling, the best French hope for a generation, but now it will go even higher.
Results
La Flèche Wallonne 2026 (200km)
1. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon CMA CGM, in 4:35:29
2. Mauro Schmid (Sui) Jayco AlUla, +3s
3. Ben Tulett (GBr) Visma-Lease a Bike
4. Benoît Cosnefroy (Fra) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, both at same time
5. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, +8s
6. Alex Baudin (Fra) EF Education-EasyPost, at same time
7. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Cofidis, +10s
8. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain Victorious
9. Romain Grégoire (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United
10 Andreas Kron (Den) Uno-X Mobility, all at same time
