“A similar case with me, in that post-Lance Armstrong era” - Tejay van Garderen sees familiar pressure around Paul Seixas’ highly-anticipated Tour de France debut at 19

Paul Seixas will arrive at the 2026 Tour de France carrying one of the heaviest burdens in cycling long before a wheel has even turned in anger. At just 19 years old, the Decathlon CMA CGM Team prodigy is already being discussed as the rider capable of ending France’s decades-long wait for a home Tour de France winner.

After his extraordinary spring campaign and stunning ride alongside Tadej Pogacar at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the hype surrounding his now confirmed Tour debut has exploded across the sport. Former Tour de France white jersey winner Tejay van Garderen knows exactly what that kind of expectation can feel like.

Speaking on NBC Sports Cycling’s Beyond the Podium podcast, Van Garderen explained why Seixas’ sudden rise reminds him of the pressure he experienced as America searched for a new Grand Tour hope in the years following Lance Armstrong. “I think I maybe hit my peak a little bit too young,” Van Garderen reflected. “There was a lot of hype, but I have no idea. I think you’re comparing completely apples to oranges.”

The American was careful not to directly compare himself to Seixas as a rider. In fact, he immediately dismissed that idea. “First of all, Paul Seixas, he is just phenomenal,” Van Garderen said. “There’s no way I was going to get on a podium of Liege.”

Instead, Van Garderen pointed towards the wider atmosphere surrounding Seixas and the way entire cycling nations can quickly place enormous expectation onto one young rider. “And he’s French,” Van Garderen explained. “The French have been yearning for this. I think they’ve tried to speak it into existence with some of the riders that we knew weren’t quite on the Contador-Froome level. Names like Bardet or names like Thibaut Pinot, who were amazingly talented riders.”

“But yeah, I think that’s a similar case with me," accepts the American. "I think everyone wanted in that post-Lance Armstrong era to... it’s like they wanted to squint and maybe if they looked hard enough they could see it.”

Van Garderen emerged during a turbulent period for American cycling. Armstrong’s downfall had left a vacuum in the sport, and after Van Garderen finished fifth overall and won the white jersey at the 2012 Tour de France, he quickly became viewed as the next major American Grand Tour contender.

That expectation followed him throughout his career, something he admitted became increasingly difficult to manage after his breakthrough performances. “When I had a really good Tour in 2012 when I won the white jersey, remember my teammate was Cadel Evans, who was the defending champion,” Van Garderen explained. “So there was nobody looking at me and I was totally playing with house money. And then that result kind of pushed me into like an upper echelon and I definitely had a lot of trouble repeating it.”

Now, he sees France placing similarly enormous hope onto Seixas after the teenager’s astonishing rise over the last few months.

Seixas’ 2026 season has transformed him from highly-rated prospect into one of the biggest stories in world cycling. The 19-year-old has already claimed major victories this season and stunned the peloton at Liege-Bastogne-Liege when he briefly followed Pogacar’s acceleration on La Redoute before eventually finishing second on his debut at the Monument.

That performance changed the conversation around him almost overnight. “We were talking earlier about who's going to be the next guy to come up,” Van Garderen said. “Nobody mentioned this kid’s name. And that was my answer. I was like, it’s probably a name that we haven’t heard of yet.”

Podcast co-host Christian Vande Velde agreed, pointing to the extraordinary speed of Seixas’ rise from junior ranks into immediate Grand Tour contention. “We’re talking about a kid, truly a kid, who just two years ago won Liege in the junior category and now he’s crushing people, going faster than ever going up La Redoute, setting record times,” Vande Velde said. “He has the actual outright Strava time... with Tadej going up La Redoute.”

That level has naturally intensified speculation around what Seixas could achieve at the Tour de France this summer, especially after Decathlon CMA CGM officially confirmed his selection. The Frenchman is now set to become the youngest Tour de France starter since 1937.

Despite the hype, both Van Garderen and Vande Velde repeatedly returned to one central message throughout the discussion: Seixas must avoid allowing the pressure to consume him too early. “I think for this year he should enjoy just playing with house money and see how far he can get,” Van Garderen said. “Because if he cracks in the third week he can always fall back and say, ‘Hey, I’m only 19 years old. I’ll build that base and I’ll get there eventually.’”

The former BMC rider warned that expectations fundamentally change once a rider proves capable of fighting for the podium. “Once he gets the podium, then the expectation comes: can you do it again?” he explained. “So, I would just enjoy this time of being young and kicking ass and being French and racing against your home crowd. Just soak it all in and, first and foremost, stay safe.”

Vande Velde agreed, arguing that this could be the only Tour of Seixas’ career where he is truly allowed to race without expectation. “I think this is your one opportunity,” Vande Velde said. “If everything does go the way we think it’s going to go, you’re not going to have this luxury ever again. This is the only time he’s going to have that capability of saying those cliches that we all said: ‘I’m just taking it day by day.’”

Van Garderen also stressed the importance of Decathlon CMA CGM fully committing to protecting their young leader throughout the race. “That team better be locked and loaded around one goal when you have someone like Paul Seixas,” he said.

Before the pressure of future Tours, future contracts and future expectations fully arrives, Van Garderen believes Seixas still has one opportunity to race freely. “Have fun, dude,” he said. “You’re young and you’re on top of the world right now.”