La Flèche Wallonne is not typically a race that is won on a first attempt. In the last few decades, in fact, the only debutant champion was Marc Hirschi in 2020, an anomalous edition that took place during Covid times, in an unusual slot of September and absent of many of the top favourites.
The master of this race, Alejandro Valverde, needed one trial run finishing a lowly 40th before claiming the first of his record five titles here. Julian Alaphilippe endured two near misses as runner-up behind Valverde in 2015 and 2016 before going on to conquer the race with his next three attempts. And even the great Tadej Pogačar had three unremarkable finishes no higher than ninth before claiming the first of his two victories here in 2023.
So it was with some caution that debutant Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) held the favourite tag for this year’s edition of the race. The nineteen-year-old had earned that status after a sublime ride at Itzulia Basque Country, where he dominated the race from start to finish, winning three of the six stages and the overall GC by a whole two and a half minutes. Among his many happy hunting grounds at that race were the short, steep hills, so La Flèche Wallonne looked like a race squarely in his wheelhouse. But could he master the notorious slopes of the Mur de Huy, the wall at the climax of Flèche that requires so much timing, patience and precision, as well as strength?
The answer was a categorical ‘yes’. Seixas embraced his status as race favourite, putting his Decathlon CMA CGM domestiques to work at the front of the peloton throughout the day to help control the break and set the pace. Then, come the climactic climb itself, they led the race into the climb, with two of his teammates accelerating onto its lower slopes before swinging off.
Boldly, Seixas opted to ride the Mur as the front-runner. He put his nose in the wind from pretty much the bottom, when his final teammate swung off, then rode at the front without letting anyone pass him, side-by-side with Ben Tulett (Visma-Lease a Bike). It was a potentially risky move, as he risked going too deep too early and being overtaken by fresher riders behind. Many riders, especially those with less experience of the climb, have led the climb early on only to tire towards the top, fading and being passed by the better-timed efforts of riders coming up fast behind them.
Seixas’ reasoning was that he would benefit from a tough race and fast pace. “I know that I’m strong when it’s hard,” he explained at the finish, so I wanted to judge myself, judge the others, to see how I managed to do this. I felt I was really strong.”
“I made my effort at 300m [to go], and then I saw they were struggling a bit behind, so I went full gas until the line.”
That acceleration 300m from the finish proved to be devastating. It was that attack that finally shook off the resolute Tulett, and though Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) finished fast to overtake the Brit for second, he too fell further and further behind. Ultimately, Seixas arrived at the line with daylight between himself and the rest, and a winning margin of three seconds that was, with the exception of Pogačar’s obliteration last year, the biggest at this race since Alaphilippe’s four-second win in 2018.
It should be acknowledged that the field of opposition wasn’t as strong as it might have been. The 26-year-old Schmid was a worthy second place, carrying through his excellent form this spring and delivering at the kind of Classic he has long been tipped to excel at. Tulett stepped up admirably in the absence of his injured Visma teammate Matteo Jorgenson. And fourth-place Benoît Cosnefroy (UAE Team Emirates XRG) again registered another high finish at a race he has a long history at, having previously placed fourth in 2024 and second in 2022.
But other proposed candidates were short of their best. There was some daylight between Cosnefroy in fourth and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) in fifth, who didn’t quite have the legs that saw him compete toe-to-toe with Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) to take second at Amstel Gold. The highly tipped young French duo of Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) and Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ United) were a little underwhelming, finishing down eighth and ninth respectively), while two-time runner-up Kévin Vauquelin (Ineos Grenadiers) was a distant thirteenth, perhaps still feeling the ill effects of his crash at Amstel Gold.
It was therefore not the tough opposition that Seixas had to overcome to take the victory. The same will not be the case at his next race — Sunday’s Liège–Bastogne–Liège. There, he will be joined by Amstel Gold winner Remco Evenepoel, a rider he has yet to face against this season, despite their similar targets; and Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5), seemingly finding his form again at the Tour of the Alps after injury forced him to reconsider his run-up to Liège–Bastogne–Liège.
And, of course, a certain Tadej Pogačar will be present, striving to win a fourth title at the race. This is the showdown that will really excite cycling fans around the world: has the unstoppable Slovenian at last met his match in the prodigious teenager Seixas? He hadn’t the last time the pair met this season at Strade Bianche, when, impressive as Seixas’ ride was to finish second, he was still a distant one minute behind Pogačar. But that was much closer than their previous races together, at Il Lombardia last year, when Seixas finished seventh behind him at 4:16, and the European Championship road race before that, where he was third at 3:41.
Victory today suggests that Seixas is set to close the gap once more, and could push Pogačar closer at Liège–Bastogne–Liège. And possibly even take the victory ahead of him? At the rate he is improving, and while he continues to achieve things that even Pogačar didn’t at a similar age, we wouldn’t put anything past the French teenager.
Read more: Paul Seixas' Tour credentials: Was the Basque Country the evidence we needed?
