"I expect Matteo Jorgenson..." - Paul Seixas names Visma leader as the danger man as he begins recovery mission at Auvergne

The Tour Auvergne-Rhônes-Alpes arrives to the mountains once again this Friday afternoon and in the center of attention will be Paul Seixas, the rider everyone will keep an eye on as the race tackles its first summit finish of the week.

“Yes, no doubt we want to make the race tougher today. Then we expect a war of attrition and it’ll be a good day to test ourselves,” he told Cycling Pro Net when asked about the start of a sequence of three decisive stages for the GC.

Although the summit finish is the race’s first major test, Seixas does not expect big gaps among the contenders. “It’s not very hard, so there you go, we’re not expecting major differences today. But the goal is to test the legs and see how they react.”

Asked about the possibility of attacking, the Frenchman chose not to reveal his plans. “We’ll see.” The stage is mostly flat however, but features a technical descent straight into the final 5.7-kilometer climb to Crest-Voland, which averages just over 7% average gradient.

Beyond the tactical moves that may unfold during the day, Seixas believes the mountains will force a selection based mainly on each rider’s power.

“I think there won’t be much psychological warfare from now on, it’ll all be about power,” he said. For the Frenchman, the most decisive stages are still to come. “We can look at the two stages after today’s, it’s going to be very hard. So now it’s really about testing ourselves today to see how we perform in the coming days.”

Seixas has a gap of of 48 seconds back on Kévin Vauquelin and Oscar Onley; and 45 seconds to regain on Matteo Jorgenson if he wants to win the French race. Whilst the final three stages all feature summit finishes and opportunities to take time, it is no easy task - whilst the likes of Juan Ayuso, Mattias Skjelmose and Isaac del Toro are also to be taken into consideration.

The atmosphere around the young French rider also came up in the conversation. Every day, large numbers of fans gather at his team bus for autographs and to show their support, a situation he admits he is relishing.

“Yes, it’s impressive, there are so many people and we expected it, a Frenchman in France, especially close to home, is always special, but it’s great and I’m really happy there’s so much enthusiasm.”

“I think there are a few [riders] who are going to be very strong today, so we’ll see. I think today will be very different from the next two.”

The Frenchman explained that the stage profile suits riders with different characteristics to those likely to make the difference in the big mountain days scheduled for the weekend. “It’s a fairly short effort, 10 to 15 minutes. The next few days will be real mountain racing.”

Among the favourites, he singled out Matteo Jorgenson. “I expect Matteo Jorgenson to perhaps be better today than in the coming days and I think he’ll be very strong.” An assessment based on previous references. “Knowing that I raced a bit against him at the Ardèche Classique and he was very strong in this kind of effort.”

He also included riders such as Juan Ayuso, Isaac del Toro and Alex Baudin among the main candidates. Even so, Seixas feels this stage presents more unknowns than those to come. “Afterwards we’ll see who can join the battle, but today I think it will be more open than the next few days.”