"I felt my front wheel slip in a corner without even understanding why" - Paul Seixas alarms about the dangerousness of stage 10 despite podium result
CyclingTuesday, 14 July 2026 at 23:00
It was not a ground-breaking performance, but Paul Seixas was certainly among the happier riders at the finish of the tenth stage. The serious fears of what would the first rest day do to the young Frenchman's legs remained unproven as Seixas climbed towards a third place in ski center Le Lioran.
"It was a good day. Not all third places on the Tour de France taste the same. Today, though, it tastes really good because it was an extremely tough day," Seixas was pleased with his performance on the Bastille day.
It was quite a specific stage. One that reminds more of a one-day classic rather than a decisive Grand Tour mountain stage, but its effect was immediate. Del Toro plummeted down the rankings. Vingegaard lost time. But Seixas came out on top.
"To go for third place, to finish among the first, the strongest riders in the Tour, is fantastic. It was harder than Les Angles, different from Gavarnie... It's not the same type of effort. The Tourmalet stage was really a climber's stage. Today was simply a stage for strong riders... with climbers of course, but also shorter, more chaotic efforts. Managing to be present on both types of terrain is good news."
Read also
White jersey within hand's reach
Thanks to Del Toro's lesser day, Seixas now moves up into a fifth spot overall. And in addition, he now gets closer to hold the white jersey for best young rider. Juan Ayuso is only 13 seconds ahead. However the sub-classification is hardly the Frenchman's objective.
"The Tour is still long, you also have to know when to stop. Naturally, everyone was giving it their all. I wasn't trying to figure out what I needed to do for the white jersey."
Juan Ayuso might become Seixas' main rival for white jersey
Decathlon CMA CGM chose to ride at the front of the peloton on the Puy Mary climb, but it wasn't specifically to unsettle UAE Team Emirates - XRG: "It was more about positioning. It was still ideal with the team; we had Nico, Matthew, and Aurélien who positioned me perfectly throughout the climb."
White roads are on a strike
Even more dangerous than the brutal parcours proved to be the roads themselves during the tenth stage. Many riders have lost control over their bicycles, including Tom Pidcock, Matteo Jorgenson and Chris Harper. Seixas noticed there was a problem as well:
"We saw that the descent was extremely dangerous. The tarmac, in my opinion, was melting, which meant I completely lost my bearings. In a corner, Nico went straight on. I thought, 'What's he doing?' And I felt my rear wheel slip, without even leaning into the turn. So I knew there was a problem. Then I finished the descent fairly calmly."
"I felt my front wheel slip in a corner without even understanding why. I think the tarmac was really melting because the descent was like an ice rink. Luckily, we were at the front at that point; we saw a few riders crash. It's really a shame to fall. At that moment, we didn't take any risks. We didn't try to do anything crazy on the descent."
But the key moment of the stage came with 15 kilometers to go. There, Tadej Pogacar finally attacked, tearing the group of favourites apart with his acceleration. Jonas Vingegaard did not panic and set a steady pace which Seixas stuck along with over the top.
"From the very foot of Col de Pertus, I felt the pace was too high. I managed it. But it immediately fell apart. So we found ourselves in a small group of favorites. After Pogacar's acceleration, it was full gas all the way to the top. We tried to work together, but it was complicated..."
"Many riders hadn't thought about how to manage Col de Pertus. They went all out from the start. So it created chaos in the group. Remco was perhaps the second strongest after Pogacar. Also because he was the one who had the most to lose, I think," he concluded.
The following two stages should bring a moment of calm and steadiness into the general classification with expected sprint finishes in Nevers and Chalon-sur-Saône.
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
claps 1visitors 1
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- And how do you know that it was only the French spectators boo-ing? Are you able to identify them just by looking at them?
Andrew15-07-2026 - But he caught him didn’t he ?vaughanstar14-07-2026
- Remco doesn’t even seem to be the top rider on his own squad. He’ll probably lose his composure again, and if I were Red Bull, I’d let him go after that and put the money into strong support riders for Lipo (I admit that this point of view obviously ignores remco's strength in the classics). Both of them often end up riding on their own, with no teammates around them, while Pogacar always has riders like Politt, McNulty, Del Toro, Yates, and others backing him up. That kind of support is something Lipowitz can only wish for.Ketterechts14-07-2026
- Interview with Tadej Pogačar by a Slovenian TV reporter after the stage: Reporter: Did everything go according to plan? It looked like you were riding for the stage win from the start. Tadej Pogačar: To be honest, the plan was a bit different. We wanted to set a really hard pace all the way to the final climb and then try something with Isaac. But in the end, the stage was so tough and the heat was so intense that things unfolded differently. We rode the penultimate climb at a really high pace, and you could see everyone's legs were already cooked. I attacked, saw that I had a gap, and decided to commit all the way to the finish. I thought, if I blow up, I blow up; if not, it'll pay off. Fortunately, it worked out. Reporter: When you bridged across to Carapaz and then found yourself alone, did you believe you could stay away? Tadej Pogačar: Yes, I did. I knew there was a tailwind on the final climb, which suited me perfectly.Ketterechts14-07-2026
- Remco is showing what I said he may before the race started. IF he has dialed in training and altitude, he could finish top 3 (4th to 5th at worst). As for Jonas he never regained his look of how he rode pre crash. I said before the race he may have to really fight to stand on the podium. It is starting to look like that no question. Lipowitz, Sexis and (shocking) Remco have been as good at times on climbs thus far. And I won't count out IDT unless he cracks very badly in the next week or so. Might be the year of the new podium positions, except Pogi who seems to have won already if he has no illness or fall. Curious, anyone else seeing the look on Jonas face? Kind of reminds me of when Lance was winning everything. Everyone else just had a look that said "Why bother to go after him? I can't beat him...better conserve energy for the 2nd and 3rd (at best) places. Seeing I can't win" I saw that look the other day. Pogi took off and Jonas didn't try to do much. I saw a few hard cranks and then he looked up and didn't seem to try. His face didn't look confident but rather defeated.md197514-07-2026
- I think Valgren was spot on. Jonas struggling now. Pogi is getting a lot of stick for making it look like an unfair advantage he has.Jerrychicken14-07-2026
- Apt comparison👌🤣abstractengineer14-07-2026
- No he just wants to win a lot of stages especially since UAE have to do the work and he can easily win. He did the same in the Giro where there was no Jonasabstractengineer14-07-2026
- Carpaz jumped and that slightly messed his plans up, but on the next to last climb he had Yates up there and I saw him reset his computer, which meant he was about to go.awp14-07-2026
- The germans are far worse than the french. Have you never been to a Tour?awp14-07-2026
Loading
Write a comment