Isaac Del Toro and Paul Seixas battle - Three keys to UAE star beating French teenager to Tour Auvergne Rhône-Alpes win

The Tour Auvergne Rhône-Alpes starts on Sunday, June 7th, with Isaac del Toro, Paul Seixas, and Juan Ayuso among the leading contenders for the overall of the newly renamed French stage race, which succeeds the Critérium du Dauphiné.

On terrain that will serve as a prelude to the Tour de France, they will wage a fierce battle in the Dauphiné mountains in the southeast of France. The race retains its role as a key Tour de France warm-up and again presents a demanding eight-stage route.

UAE Team Emirates XRG backs Del Toro as team leader to strike for the overall. All eyes, though, are on his rival Seixas, who at 19 will be the youngest rider to debut at the Tour in 89 years. The American ends the spring established in the WorldTour peloton despite his recent misfortune.

This duel is an appetizer before the season’s second Grand Tour, where Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar, and Remco Evenepoel will line up. While those three giants with their deep palmarès head there, in Auvergne we will see a ferocious fight between Isaac del Toro, Paul Seixas, and Juan Ayuso.

After finishing second at the 2025 Giro d’Italia, Isaac del Toro approaches his third WorldTour season with poise, settled in the Emirati squad. He targets the Tour Auvergne Rhône-Alpes with a clear goal: sharpen form before the Tour. That is where he must be for the team’s undisputed leader, Tadej Pogacar.

On the road to Barcelona, which will host the Grand Départ 2026, the Mexican has learned to race stage events astutely. This season he rode with great intelligence at UAE Tour and Tirreno–Adriatico, where he claimed the overall, dominating strong rivals such as Antonio Tiberi, Felix Gall, Primoz Roglic, and Matteo Jorgenson.

It is undeniable that Decathlon has taken a major step in its financial ambitions by adding a giant like CMA CGM among its naming partners. With them, the French outfit has lured riders such as Tiesj Benoot, Gregor Mühlberger, and Matthew Riccitello, among others.

Despite the high-profile reinforcements at the Savoyard formation, they will face a UAE team with a deep arsenal. Potentially even stronger than the French. Tim Wellens, Pavel Sivakov, Joao Almeida, Pablo Torres, and Benoit Cosnefroy are riders of proven value.

Even a potential marking duel between Juan Ayuso and Paul Seixas could play into the hands of an Emirati squad that knows how to contest these races with tactical nous without abandoning its forward-thinking style.

Paul Seixas heads to the Grande Boucle as Decathlon’s leader, with a team built around him featuring Aurélien Paret-Peintre, the aforementioned Riccitello, and Léo Bisiaux as trusted climbers.

The gifted young Frenchman, well protected, must avoid going over the limit when it matters. An all-out effort at the former Dauphiné, showing bravery, power, and a higher peak than his main rival Del Toro, could cost him in July.

In these final steps, the Mexican, returning after injury at Itzulia, will need competitive kilometres at high intensity. With a secondary role at UAE Team and as Pogacar’s lieutenant, he has both the advantage and the imperative to chase race rhythm, allowing for harder efforts than the French prodigy.

And Seixas faces a major handicap if he tries to prove every day that he has no rival at the Tour Auvergne Rhône-Alpes.