The future is French! Paul Seixas wins the 2025 Tour de l'Avenir with incredible turnaround in final time trial

Paul Seixas has won the 2025 Tour de l'Avenir, putting in a dominant performance in the final time trial to win the stage and surge into the Maillot Jaune at the very last.

With the final of racing offering two different chances to make a difference, on the first outing of the day, a 41.6km ride over three summits, Jarno Widar secured his second consecutive stage victory at the Tour de l’Avenir, outsprinting rival Paul Seixas and narrowing the gap to overall leader Maxime Decomble, who lost half a minute more.

As a result, heading into the final time trial, Decomble's hold of the Maillot Jaune was down to just 29 seconds over his compatriot Seixas with Lorenzo Finn at 35 seconds down and Widar also very much in touch at 36 seconds off the pace.

In the time trial, the best of the early efforts came from Julian Baudry with the Aussie setting a benchmark of 27:30 for the uphill 10.3km battle against the clock. By the time the Maillot Jaune went down the start ramp however, it was the young Ukrainian Mykhailo Basaraba who was in the hotseat thanks to his effort of 27:21. Moments later, Ireland's Adam Rafferty then went even quicker and by a big margin too at 26:48.

Rafferty's own time was quickly bettered though as the pace continued to increase as those higher up the GC standings concluded their efforts. In the end, the stage win went to Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team prospect Paul Seixas, who set a blistering time of 24:16, 27 seconds clear of Jorgen Nordhagen and 32 clear of Jarno Widar. With Decomble unable to challenge a dual victory was secured for Seixas at the line as he claimed not only the stage win but also the Maillot Jaune as Tour de l'Avenir winner.