Telling Paul Seixas to slow down? - Daan Hoole explains team time trial moment as he gestured to teenage star

Paul Seixas rode his first team time trial with Decathlon CMA CGM on Tuesday, with the team recording a solid sixth place finish and a respectable time amongst the other leading teams in the discipline.

However, there was one big moment the 19-year-old sensation appeared to be putting his own team under pressure, leading to Daan Hoole gesturing to Seixas, and seemingly asking him to ease up and slow down. With cameras catching the interaction clearly, Hoole himself has cleared up what happened.

While admitting that much of their plan came to fruition, the team did lose specialist Stefan Bisseger in the lead-up to the finale, meaning that Seixas himself would come through to do some turns and up the pace.

Hoole hinted that Seixas' turns - particularly in the uphill sections - had put his teammates under pressure and the gesture was aimed to ensure turns would be longer and not sharper.

"Paul is of course a very strong rider. He is one of the best climbers in the world. When he is leading on the climb, things naturally go fast," Hoole told reporters after the stage.

"We had lost Stefan [Bisseger], so I told him then that he needed to take longer turns. Eventually he did that and he was super strong. Truly the main engine of our team. And then you notice that it isn't going fast enough. Then you need more riders."

The stage was a dress rehearsal of sorts for the French team, who know the opening stage team time trial will be crucial for ensuring the teenage starlet is immediately up to pace with rivals Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard as he arrives to the Grand Depart with lofty ambitions.

Hoole believes the Barcelona team time trial is easier for the team, with less climbing in the earlier sections, and gave a simple and blunt assessment of the plan: deliver Seixas to the final climb and let him do the rest.

"In the Tour, it is a different time trial," Hoole said. "I would even say easier, because it is flat and then the climb. Now it is a climb and then flat. So you have to find that balance between going hard on the climb, but keeping the heavier guys on board.

"In the Tour, it’s simply about getting to the climb as quickly as possible and wishing Paul good luck there. Then he heads to the finish."