"Juan Ayuso and João Almeida did not cooperate with me a lot..." - Paul Seixas on first pro win in the Algarve's queen stage

Paul Seixas is an incredibly talented rider and at age 19, he is already one of the most prominent names in the peloton. Often he is compared to Tadej Pogacar, and perhaps that will be even more the case after today as the Frenchman has taken his maiden pro win in the exact same mountain where the World Champion did it back in 2019.

"It's perfect, first pro win in Portugal, it has meaning (Seixas is of Portuguese descendancy, ed.)... For the moment the first goal is already achieved: Win a race. It's so amazing," the Decathlon CMA CGM Team rider said in a post-race interview. A talented climber, his victory didn't come as a surprise. Nevertheless, in a race where top climbers are present every year, it certainly was no easy task to make it work on the day many called the 'queen stage'.

The Alto da Fóia, with its 9 kilometers in length, provided an opportunity for the climbers to make the difference. Lidl-Trek is the team that took responsibility and tried making the race hard. But when Juan Ayuso attacked first halfway up the climb, Seixas was ready to respond.

"There was a lot of rhythm and then at the start of the last climb, in the corner, it started to be a bit tactic with the crash of the UAE guy. Then just started to follow at first, then I tried to make a big rhythm, but Juan Ayuso and João Almeida did not cooperate with me a lot".

With the hardest part of the climb behind, the 19-year old didn't manage to go solo off the front. He met resistance from his two rivals, and so the pace of the group slowed down. "So I was afraid we'd be caught by some riders. But hopefully (correction: thankfully, ed.) it was only two and one was my teammate so it was perfect for me".

Matthew Riccitello joined the front and knowing of Seixas' strong sprint and a numerical superiority, he quickly attacked. This didn't let the pace slow down too hard, and after João Almeida launched his own moves in the final kilometer, the youngster was still within striking position.

"Matthew did a great job to push everyone to the limit. Then João attacked a lot, but I knew I had to wait for my moment, and just conserve the energy as I can, and just keep the most energy as I could and do the sprint, even if I was a bit lost in the corners at the end. I'm really happy for me, for the team, we did an amazing job today all the riders..."

The final sprint was exciting and was very tight, with Juan Ayuso coming within inches of his own first pro win with Lidl-Trek. But in the end, luck would smile towards the Decathlon rider, who is now also the new leader of the overall classification.

"My teammates did a great job today positioning me, stayed always in front and out of the danger so it was perfect and perfect for the team, so it's a good reward for the group".