Paul Seixas gets close to the sun – and doesn’t burn. Tadej Pogačar has a new rival

The 19-year-old Frenchman finishes second to the world champion at Liège-Bastogne-Liège

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photography: Zac Williams/SWpix.com Words: Chris Marshall-Bell

They’ll talk about this day for years to come. It’ll take up pages in history books and biographies, be mentioned fondly on podcasts and radio shows, and those by the roadside will proudly tell others that they were privy to watching promise and potential become reality.

Before we go any further now is probably a good time to set out the facts, before the events that transpired will be exaggerated and the facts become looser with time, as such tales tend to do. Tadej Pogačar won his third successive Liège-Bastogne-Liège, his fourth in total, taking his Monument win tally to 13. He’s now only six short of Eddy Merckx’s record. Those are the hard facts, the ones stripped of context, deroped of the circumstances of how they came to be.

The real reason why the 2026 edition of Liège will forever be remembered and eulogised is because it was a coming of age moment for the man – sorry, 19-year-old boy – in second: Monsieur Paul Seixas. He’d already shared a podium with Pogačar, finishing third at last October’s European Championships, and second at this March’s Strade Bianche. He’s already been one of the riders of the spring, winning three stages and the GC at the notoriously difficult Itzulia Basque Country, and then winning La Flèche Wallonne earlier this week.

But until now, he’d not really gone head-to-head with Pogačar, the rider who the whole cycling world expects he will eventually supersede. Yes, he nullified Pogačar’s first attack at Strade, but within seconds he was distanced – chucked mercilessly out the back like the rest of the peloton. He got too close to the sun and he burnt. Youthful exuberance, you might say. Bonne chance, Paul, the rest of the field said.

At Liège, when Pogačar made his inevitable move on the Côte de la Redoute with 35km to go, the expectation was that he’d sail into the distance, and the rest of the race would begin the fight for second. That’s what’s happened in the past, so why would it be any different this time?

Because Seixas is the real thing. There’s a reason the whole of France – and a good proportion of the rest of cycling fandom – has bought a lifetime railcard for the Seixas TGV. He’s only 19, but he appears to have absolutely everything to be the sport’s next superstar. So when Pogačar attacked, Seixas went with him. He got close to the sun and he didn’t burn. He became part of the sun’s orbit, emanating his own powerful, dominant rays that shot back at the rest of the peloton, holding them back, resisting their approach.

Unlike at Strade, this time Seixas stuck obdurately to his wheel. Pogačar tried to shake him, but Seixas wouldn’t be shaken. Pogačar attacked again, but Seixas responded. There are only two riders in the Pogačar era who have been able to do that on a climb – Jonas Vingegaard and Mathieu van der Poel – and now there are two.

Pogačar couldn’t do much more. He admitted so later on. “On the Redoute climb I was really going deep, but on the top he came next to me and I was like, ‘OK, really impressed’. Maybe in the back of my head I was already preparing to do a duel sprint because he was strong.”

That wouldn’t be necessary. Pogačar and Seixas worked together for little over 20 kilometres, stretching a huge lead over the chasing pack that contained Remco Evenepoel (who in the first hour capitalised on a split in the peloton and figured in a near-50-man breakaway that excluded Pogačar and Seixas) and Mattias Skeljmose. On the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, 13km from the finish, Pogačar wound up his legs and went again. This time, Seixas couldn’t react. He was mortal, after all.

Pogačar then did Pogačar things, carving out a massive lead on the rest of the climb and then soloing to the line, finishing 45 seconds ahead of Seixas. “I tried on the Roche-aux-Faucons, I tried to keep my pace. It suits me super well, and luckily, he dropped,” Pogačar reflected. Evenepoel, until today but definitely no more the man who Pogačar had to be most aware of in these one-day races, crossed the line 57 seconds behind Seixas.

Decathlon CMA CGM’s cycling champion was born in September 2006 – just three days before Pogačar’s eighth birthday – but it was April 26, 2026 when Seixas truly stormed onto the scene. He didn’t win, but there’s no shame in losing to Pogačar. Remove the GOAT from the picture, and Seixas was far and away the best of the remaining 174 riders. He was also the youngest – by one year and 120 days.

“Today I was a hair’s breadth away,” the charismatic Frenchman smiled afterwards. “It was my first Liège and I wanted to give it everything and that’s what I did. The team positioned me perfectly and that allowed me to hold his wheel.” Sitting on and then riding with Pogačar put him, he beautifully articulated, “in a state of euphoria and confusion.” He needn’t be confused the next time he finds himself in a similar position, for he’s now truly among the elite.

A decision will reportedly be taken this week as to whether or not he rides the Tour de France this July. Later in the year, possibly in the next month if some accounts are to be believed, he’ll also make a call on where his future lays beyond 2027 – with Decathlon, as French president Emmanuel Macron is reportedly pushing for – or with a rival team, possibly even with UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

That’d kill the Pogačar and Seixas rivalry that is at its glorious infancy. Cycling doesn’t want that, cycling doesn’t need that. Pogačar v Vingegaard and Pogačar v Van der Poel have kept us entertained since the pandemic days of the world in masks. Pogačar v Seixas is now what we need – regularly. The boy from France is proving he can deliver the blockbuster performances to match the hype.