"Not next year" - The French will have to wait for their new super talent Paul Magnier to make Tour de France debut

Soudal - Quick-Step is a team that has over time hosted many of the world's best sprinters. Paul Magnier fits like a glove into what the team wants and needs, but in the team hierarchy he falls behind Tim Merlier and is aware of it. Hence, he is not entering 2026 with the hopes of making his Tour de France debut yet.

The Tour de France, for a French rider, is obviously a major point of motivation for the 21-year old. "Of course. Yes, yes, it definitely speaks to me. But not next year," Magnier confirmed to FranceTV. "It's an incredibly difficult race with huge pressure. Media pressure, sporting pressure, pressure from sponsors. It's very tough. It's the hardest race in the world."

Magnier by all means is ready for it. You could argue it for many different reasons. He is now entering his third season as a pro, has 24 wins to his name (19 of them taken this year) and has now raced an extensive World Tour calendar including a Grand Tour debut at the Giro d'Italia - which ended in the final week. Magnier is also not only a strong sprinter but very powerful puncheur, capable of handling the hilly and cobbled classics better than the average sprinter. But Quick-Step, specially now after Remco Evenepoel's departure, is a team that wants to put all its chips in the sprinters. And Tim Merlier is its leader.

Besides, Merlier has equally given the team all the reasons it needed to deposit their confidence in him, having won two stages at this year's Tour, besides countless other high-level victories throughout the year. Magnier cannot contest, yet, the spot with the 33-year old. That likely means that, at least for the first half of the season, Magnier is likely to follow a similar program with the spring classics and a likely Giro d'Italia return - or perhaps a focus on La Vuelta, with Alberto Dainese instead leading the team in Italy.

But the Tour will be on his schedule one day, and for a rider of his age and quality, he acknowledges that he does not need to rush the process. "The day I feel ready, wearing the yellow jersey would be a feeling that's impossible to describe, indescribable. And I would love to feel that one day".