“The team wanted me to win, but I said: No, Nico deserves it more than I do!" - Paul Seixas overrules team orders to hand Nicolas Prodhomme first pro win at Tour of the Alps
CyclingFriday, 25 April 2025 at 17:30
The 18-year-old Paul Seixas has been incredibly impressive at the Tour of the Alps this week. The French, widely touted as a rider with the potential to end his nation's long wait for a Tour de France win, also showed his class on the final stage. But whilst he a first pro win looked a certainty, Seixas instead opted to hand the win to his Nicolas Prodhomme at the line.
The vastly more experienced Prodhomme, so long a loyal domestique for the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team, was also searching for his first professional win and with the pair of teammates well clear of the rest as they entered the finale, Seixas decided to grant his domestique the win in a classy move made even classier when the 18-year-old revealed in a post-stage interview that his team had actually wanted him to take the victory instead.
“The team wanted me to take the win, but I said, ‘No, Nico deserves it more than I do!’" the French wonderkid explained to the media at the finish line afterwards, realising time is very much on his side. "I know I’m still going to improve. He’s riding incredibly well, but you never know. It gives me so much joy to let him have it today!”
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💬 Paul Seixas, 2e de l'étape 5 du Tour des Alpes : « L'équipe voulait que ce soit moi qui gagne, mais je leur ai dit que : "Non, Nicolas Prodhomme la méritait plus que moi". »#lequipeVELO pic.twitter.com/aUvqJEYzfF
— la chaine L'Équipe (@lachainelequipe) April 25, 2025
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- Its a pretty easy comparison, Jonas is the best. Look at his opponent the Best rider of his generation and 3rd best of all time Pogi who he has beaten twice in TDF. Pedersen cant even beat MVDP in monumentsabstractengineer12-05-2025
- Did the person who wrote this article catch any of last season and what happened? Cut the guy some slack and stop feeding of someone else’s hard times, the above article is pretty redundant.Jezla12-05-2025
- Hey, all great and deserving of respect but let’s not look at things too pinkly. He’s only just above Marc Hirschi in the UCI rankings. He’s had the potential to do this for the last 7-8 years, it’s just all come together at once, having his moment. Maybe he went on a secret HA camp :-) Seriously though, he’s NEVER said he doesn’t believe in it (challenge: find me that quote), he said he hates it in words that would get an F1 driver punished, and for the same reasons that his fellow countryman Jonas gets crucified for, being away from family (though given team budgets, there is an obvious solution to that). Besides, not very professional of media and pundits to linger on past out of date sayings, he’s more or less changed his mind in the meantime and is no longer categoric about refusing to try.Mistermaumau12-05-2025
- I don’t think that pays off in cycling, you never know when your next problem will happen, injury, illness, crash, and using so much time to prepare for a big goal risks being very disappointing in a short career.Mistermaumau12-05-2025
- I love Remco but this year is a write-off. The smart move would be to treat it all as preparation for next season.Renz12-05-2025
- What you forget about hunting is that time is on the side of the hunter. You’d be a fool to underestimate rivals who haven’t peaked and I doubt you’ll hear any riders including TP or JV brushing him off like you’re trying. He’s done one GT against them, his first, what were you expecting? Still way ahead of any other contenders and that as a first-timer.Mistermaumau12-05-2025
- Its appears that way. Repeated crashes take a toll on the bodyabstractengineer11-05-2025
- He cannot hunt down something that he has never been close to in GTsabstractengineer11-05-2025
- He's just not the same after the crash at La Vuelta. I hope the knee injury does not "Chris Froome" his career.
KerisVroom11-05-2025 - Well, I didn’t hear any strict instructions from management so why shouldn’t it be like Visma’s infamous Vuelta unless things heat up? Am sure they don’t regret sweeping the podium which was only possible because internal rivalry was at least as strong as external.Mistermaumau11-05-2025
Big-hearted young man. Kudos to him!
Excellent on so many levels. If people are right, Seixas will have plenty of wins in the future. But to give a long time domestique a chance for his first win? That’s a space for loyalty and admiration - and that’s a source for many future wins. Super cool.
Cool for an 18y old