“He has a tendency to mess things up” - Brian Holm questions Paul Seixas’ tactical maturity ahead of Il Lombardia
Cycling
Paul Seixas may already have the legs to win Il Lombardia. Brian Holm is less convinced that the 20-year-old always has the race management to match them.
Ahead of Saturday’s final Monument of the season, the former Danish professional has placed Seixas among the five riders he believes can challenge for victory in Italy, but with one clear reservation. “There’s no doubt about how strong he is,” Holm told Eurosport.dk. “But he does have a tendency to mess things up a little sometimes.”
Seixas’ results in 2026 underline just how quickly he has moved into that company. The Frenchman has won La Flèche Wallonne and Itzulia Basque Country, finished second at both Strade Bianche and Liège-Bastogne-Liège and taken fourth overall at the Tour de France.
Some of those mistakes have been acknowledged by Seixas himself. After finishing second to Isaac del Toro at the GP Montréal, he admitted he had not been smart enough before the final climb and felt the Mexican had ridden the finale better. Earlier in the Canadian block, he had also spoken about wasting energy through poor tactical choices.
Paul Seixas at the 2026 World Championships
Already among the favourites
Holm has not allowed any of that to push Seixas down his list of contenders for Lombardia. “I think he is in the top five among the riders who can be involved,” he said.
Remco Evenepoel is the clear favourite in Holm’s view, with Giulio Ciccone, Isaac del Toro and newly-crowned world champion Brandon McNulty also among the names he expects to feature prominently. Seixas belongs in the same group after the season he has put together, and he already has a strong result in Lombardia to build on.
His debut came in 2025, when he finished seventh at just 19 years old. Seixas later admitted he had been caught too far back before a descent and then had to spend energy chasing his way back into position, but still rode himself into the top ten of one of cycling’s five Monuments at the first attempt.
A year later, expectations have changed considerably. Seventh would no longer feel like the same kind of breakthrough result after everything he has achieved since.
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Lombardia was always part of the plan
Saturday has also been a deliberate target rather than simply the final race left on the calendar. Seixas skipped the European Championships as part of his preparation for Lombardia, giving himself a cleaner run into a race he already knows suits him. The route from Bergamo to Como should again favour riders who can handle repeated climbing late in a long and selective day.
There is no Tadej Pogacar this time, which changes the shape of the race immediately. Evenepoel arrives as Holm’s favourite, Ciccone comes in after pushing the Belgian all the way to a photo finish at the European Championships, while Del Toro and McNulty give UAE Team Emirates-XRG more than one route into the finale.
Seixas will line up having already spent much of 2026 proving he can match riders of that level. Saturday now offers another chance to turn that strength into a Monument result better than the seventh place he managed on debut.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- UAE was really badly positioned at the last climb, and Ineos did a great job of making that happen at the bottom. That must have affected del Toro and the rest. His attack wasn't spectacular, and they hadn't ripped apart the bunch enough, letting a large group remain in back to reel him in. UAW lost the race on the road to the climb and the bottom third of it, I think.RidesHills08-10-2026
- He won in exactly the same way as others. By being the fastest to complete the stages.mobk08-10-2026
- Very surprised del toro couldn't beat everyone here against lesser competition. He's well on his way to being top 5 in the worldbruins3008-10-2026
- Being the best rider left in the race is pretty much the only way to win in any edition, surely? Seems reductive to say "they only won because the entire peloton wasn't as absolutely stacked as it could've been" - you can only beat who is in front of you.wrsty08-10-2026
- I’m sorry but generally the coverage on your site is first class but this incident highlights something I just don’t get with cycling journalism. This accident should never have been allowed to happen, it comes uncomfortably close to the Finlay Tarling tragedy and two other incidents took place within days of this. I checked all of the cycling websites and you all put out basically the same story. Pidcock gave journalists the perfect opening to blow this sky high, what has the UCI got to say? What is Adam Hansen doing? What do the organisers say? Nothing, you all trot out the same easy quotes taken from Pidcocks interview after the race but do nothing to follow it up. I see it time and time again, journalists taking the easy way out but being outraged when it happens again as it surely will. Riders can’t do this but journalists should be independent and should be able to raise these uncomfortable questions but cyclinguptodate and every other on line publication prefer to take the easy way out. That’s the real tragedy here.Paul53108-10-2026
- Happy to help :-)Mistermaumau08-10-2026
- Well, ok but, it’s also a structural, team, budgeting, direction and all sorts of other issueMistermaumau08-10-2026
- I wouldn’t call it an analogy but maybe his criticism is a little unfair. On the other hand, the fact Cicco made a public affair out of it despite having received all the explanations and proof makes me feel he now deserves being criticised for not accepting there is nothing to discuss.Mistermaumau08-10-2026
- Much as I like him (one of my favourites), I do want to attract a little attention to the coincidence of his recent performances in the current context. Not the first time a rider improves noticeably when there’s a job interview to prepare. In the same lighthearted humour of his, i hope the UCI will let him wear it at home as the rules quite strictly state you can only wear it during participation in the discipline you won in, and we all know how capable they are of interpreting rule interpretation ;-) Also, if it’s going to be retirement (please not), I wouldn’t call that an agreement as somebody will probably feel they didn’t get what they wanted.Mistermaumau08-10-2026
- Agreed. There used to be a team willing to pay though. I take all these figures (that vary enormously according to who is publishing) with handfuls of salt. We don’t know how salaries are treated (especially between a UK employer and Andorran resident), we don’t know how numbers are derived and from where, if deductions have been taken into consideration, etc. but if he returns to Colombia, he’s going to need quite a bit in protection money.Mistermaumau08-10-2026
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