CyclingUpToDate Podcast: "The topic isn't closed" - Will Paul Seixas' contract discussion reignite during the Tour?

Paul Seixas is starting his first Tour de France, however outside of the French borders. Perhaps because of that reason he was not the rider who was cheered on the most during Thursday's team presentation at the Sagrada Família on Barcelona. However that can be deceptive, as the 19-year old carries with him the weight of the home nation that is hungry after 41 years without a yellow jersey in Paris.

Seixas' development in 2026 has been nothing but spectacular, breaking all barriers of what a rider his age would be expected to achieve. His performances at Strade Bianche and Lìège-Bastogne-Liège against Tadej Pogacar; astounding climbing performances at the Faun-Ardèche Classic and Itzulia Basque Country; and the consistency he has achieved despite being the youngest rider in the Tour's peloton since 1937 have been nothing but awe-inspiring. How far can he take it in his first Tour de France?

"I think legs-wise, he's perfectly ready," Kieran Wood argued on the second episode of our podcast. "But can he handle the intense pressure and scrutiny that he's going to be getting for three whole weeks? Simply because he's French, I don't think there's a rider at the Tour this year that's under more pressure and under more scrutiny from the media".

The rise of riders such as Remco Evenepoel and Tadej Pogacar was metheoric in the cycling world but in Seixas there is an added variabe. The phenomenom comes from France, host nation of the sport's biggest events - one it used to rule in its early history, but has now not seen a home winner since Bernard Hinault in 1985.

Seixas' surge through cycling at this point in time is only a coincidence. But despite not being at fault for the country's lack of a big history-changing win, he is perhaps the rider who has looked best in all of these years to have a future with a yellow jersey in it - something the French desperately needed at a time where the sport has also become more international. "And the fact this is his first Grand Tour, the fact he's 19, there's going to be a lot to deal with".

Silva has argued that whilst the pressure can be incredibly high, the youngsters ability to handle it thus far in his career has been just as impressive: "I think so. But at the same time, it feels like, you know, when you watch the Matrix and he turns to Neo and says 'you're the one'. It almost feels like that. He's 19, he is a kid, and it's his first Grand Tour, even, the Tour de France. But he just looks so composed, like throughout the whole season. We know that he has this weight on his shoulders, but it doesn't seem to weigh on him at all".

Results wise that certainly is not the case. Seixas has won or been a big part of every single race he has taken to the start this year. The Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes was his major test ahead of the Tour, which was chosen as his debut three-week race despite his position int he peloton, but he suffered a high-speed crash on stage 7 which then led to his withdrawal from the race.

The pressure hasn't seemed to weight the Frenchman down this year, but that may not be the case all the way to Paris. "The only thing that can really derail it, let's say, or begin to really put that pressure, is if the talks about his contract and negotiations come up," Silva put forward. "I do think that will happen. I don't know from where, but it's the Tour, it's the French jewel, and the topic isn't closed. It just went dormant after April".

Throughout the first half of the year, it was argued that UAE were making strong moves to try and sign Seixas, part of Decathlon CMA CGM Team - a French sponsored team with a recently increased budget, and potential support from French president Emanuel Macron himself.

Almost all teams at the top of the sport have been reported to have some sort of contact with Seixas or his team. Team Visma | Lease a Bike, Netcompany INEOS, Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe, Lidl-Trek... Recently a report suggested that Pinarello - Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team was offering a never-before-seen salary of €13 million as part of an offer to Seixas - shadowing Pogacar's current €8 million a year.

It is a topic that may reignite at the Tour, if there was an advancement with any of the parties involved recently. "I think that if those conversations begin to appear, and if UAE or any other team begin to circle around, then there's going to be a lot more questions, and there's going to be also a lot more pressure to hide and protect Seixas from the media".

Kieran Wood certainly believes so, and brings another example from the world of sports: "The top darts player in the world at the moment is 19, Luke Littler. And when he burst on the scene at 16, got to the World Championship final, everyone was a bit like they are with Seixas now. They were waiting like 'oh he's still a kid, it's going to hit him at some point, he's going to stop'. But this is three years later, he just won everything. So that could realistically be Seixas".

There are outliers in sports, and as Seixas seems to be proving on several occasions, age or experience do not seem to get in the way of a few athletes. The Frenchman's path to success doesn't appear too different from that of Tadej Pogacar in the past, and if he manages to actually win the Tour de France or come close this year, he may do so having avoided the big questions that have plagued some of his rivals' careers.

"Because it's just happened so fast. With Evenepoel, you had this years-long anticipation of 'will we win a Grand Tour, will we not? Is he a Grand Tour rider?'," Silva argued. "Seixas, he was already a massive talent, but it was only really at the European Championships last year that, when he finished on the podium with Pogacar and Evenepoel, that people were really like 'oh, he's already there, he's not just for the future, he's now'. And it was in February that took another jump, but that's only been four or five months ago".

There was a lot of discussion on whether Seixas would race La Vuelta a España before making his Tour de France debut. All of those 'logic' steps that follow regular riders did not apply to Seixas, but that may not be a problem in the first place.

"There hasn't been that years-long discussion on can he do it, can he not do it? So I think that helps as well in this case. I think it's not too different from Pogacar who in 2019, just showed up at his first Vuelta, and there weren't really a lot of expectations. And all of a sudden he just starts winning left and right and finishing third [in the overall classification]".