“He’s going to ruin my month of July” - Paul Seixas’ grandparents raise Tour de France fears as teenage superstar faces weight of expectation on historic debut

Paul Seixas is still weeks away from the first Tour de France start of his career, but the scale of what is coming has already reached his family.

The 19-year-old Decathlon CMA CGM Team rider is set to make history in Barcelona on 4 July, when he is expected to become the youngest rider to start the Tour de France in 89 years. For French cycling, that makes Seixas one of the most compelling storylines of the summer. For his grandparents, it has brought pride, fear and the strange feeling that a rider they still see as “our little Paul” is suddenly becoming a national figure.

That tension is already visible before July. At the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Seixas started the week as one of the most watched names in the race formerly known as the Criterium du Dauphine. Stage 1 immediately put him into a GC storyline, with Decathlon losing Matthew Riccitello to illness and Seixas finishing in the main group at 44 seconds after Oscar Onley, Kevin Vauquelin and others gained time in a late split.

It was only the first day of his final public build-up towards the Tour, but it showed the new reality around Seixas. Every setback, split and tactical moment is now being read through the lens of July.

Seixas’ maternal grandparents, Annie and Claude, have watched his rise from Fenestin, near Vannes in Morbihan. Speaking to Le Telegramme, they described the emotion of seeing him reach this point. “We are proud of him, moved, stunned and impressed all at once,” they said.

That pride comes with a more difficult side. The Tour de France is brutal for riders, but it can be brutal for families too. Three weeks of crashes, stress, expectation and constant attention are now waiting for a teenager whose profile has grown at remarkable speed.

For Annie, the fear is already part of watching him race. “I’m going to be ill for three weeks,” she said. “He’s going to ruin my month of July. When Paul races, I can’t stay in front of the television. I’m always afraid he’ll fall. I go for a walk in the forest or say hello to the neighbour... but I quickly come back home to see where he is.”

Claude does not look away from Seixas’ races, but he admitted the experience is not calm. He said he is “very stressed”, adding: “Sometimes I get chills.”

Seixas’ Tour debut would attract attention under any circumstances. His age makes it bigger. His nationality makes it louder. France has waited a long time for a teenage rider with this level of expectation heading towards the Tour, and Seixas now finds himself carrying that conversation before he has even crossed the start line.

For his grandparents, that sudden fame has brought its own unease. “All this excitement around him scares us as well, but there’s nothing we can do about it,” Claude said.

There is a personal sadness inside the pride too. The bigger Seixas becomes to the public, the more his family have to share him with everyone else. “It’s a bit too much. Somewhere, we feel a little as if he is slipping away from us, but he remains our Paul, our little Paul,” Annie said.

Seixas will arrive at the Tour as one of French cycling’s most closely watched young riders in years. For those closest to him, though, July will be measured not only in results, but in the tension of watching a teenager step into the full glare of the sport’s biggest race.