"The moment I had to wait, I did think: it’s over" - Inside Paul Seixas and Decathlon's defiant fightback at Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

Paul Seixas may have lost valuable time to his general classification rivals on stage 7 of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes on Saturday, but the 19-year-old's defiant fightback from a hard crash to return to the front of affairs saw him gain many new fans. But the recovery was very much a team effort as his Decathlon CMA CGM teammates played their part.

The French teenager crashed hard on a descent early in the stage, and with no television cameras broadcasting the action at that point, news broke that Seixas was down and a gap of over three minutes had formed - spelling alarm bells for his general classification hopes with 93 kilometers to go.

But what happened next was a 56 kilometer chase as a battered and bloodied Seixas worked his way back to the peloton, but ultimately lost some time to his rivals on the final climb as he paid for his earlier efforts.

Decathlon rider Daan Hoole explained the moment they found out their general classification hope had crashed: "I didn't see the crash myself, but I heard that Paul had fallen," Hoole told WielerFlits. "It was actually a bit of poor communication from the ASO."

He added: "We heard that the descent had been neutralised. That was better, too, because there was really a lot of gravel. And then suddenly, halfway down the descent – ​​when the road surface was better – it was reopened. After that, of course, it was a race on the descent, so that was a bit dangerous. And that is apparently where he fell."

With such a long way to go and it taking over three minutes for Seixas to get onto his bike, things weren't looking good for the team. But they persevered and set a calm plan in place that ultimately got the job done and returned him to the peloton.

Step one was to bring powerful rouleurs Daan Hoole and Stefan Bisseger back to Seixas, with the duo tasked with stabilising the gap to the front of the race on a long flat section before the next climb. Although the gap did extend past four minutes at one point, Hoole and Bisseger were able to bring it down somewhat in the following kilometers.

After the pair had done their job and the Lacets de Colombier climb began, Aurélien Paret-Peintre was tasked with guiding Seixas up the climb, once again reducing the gap on the uphill. By the time the race topped the climb with roughly 55 kilometers to go, that gap shrunk to just over 1:30.

Hoole said: “It took a long time before he came back. After that, I basically rode with Stefan [Bissegger, ed.] all the way to the climb, to try and make the gap as small as possible."

"Panic? Well, not really. You also know: you can only do your best. We just rode as hard as possible until the climb and then we’ll see what happens.”

The final step was a retreating Nicolas Prodhomme and Leo Bisiaux from the peloton, having remained there until the descent of the Lacets de Colombier, joining up with Seixas for a final push to the peloton - with the rider back amongst the favourites with 37 kilometers to go.

Completing a remarkable fightback, and with Seixas emptying himself on the final climb to remain within touching distance in the general classification, an exhausted Decathlon star collapsed into his father's arms at the finish.

The 19-year-old finished seventh on the stage and sixth in GC. Isaac Del Toro and Juan Ayuso were the big winners in terms of time on Saturday, but it's luke Tuckwell who still sits at the top of the Classification with everything to play for in Sunday's final stage.

Hoole, while admitting that he did initially believe their general classification hopes had gone up in smoke, praised the team's impressive show of strength and calmness.

"In the end, it all turned out very positively and the team was very strong. But the moment I had to wait, I did think: it’s over. Because the gap was so big. But fortunately, we were able to come back."