While awaiting his full entry into the world of the French Dauphin, Paul Seixas, we really cannot attribute to the chauvinism of our cousins across the Alps the media space reserved for the boy born in Lyon (but who blossomed cyclistically in Anse, 28 km north of the capital of the Rhone-Alpes region).

On the day of the Roubaix, L'Equipe dedicated 11 pages to two wheels, of which the first two to the Basque Country Tour, a terrain of conquest for Seixas, who, speaking of World Tour stage races, also has the merit of ending a 19-year drought for French riders.

The boy has the armor to amaze, he handles well the pressure that an entire sporting movement reserves for him, yet he clearly has a romantic soul, when he chooses his training routes. Let us explain: Italy is also involved and we must go back to October 19th last, eight days after his seventh place at the Giro di Lombardia: Seixas left home in the dead of night, mounting his bike at the gates of Megeve, climbing Col de Saises and Cormet De Roselend, then heading towards La Rosiere, where he took the lead in the general classification of the 2025 Tour de l'Avenir, thanks to his victory in the final time trial climb.

Young Paul entered the Aosta Valley through the Little St. Bernard, but he had only covered 112 of 323 kilometers in the course of a "training ride" more akin to a stage of epic cycling. Three countries (France, Italy, Switzerland), 12 hours in the saddle, average temperature of 7 degrees, but what is that for a former cyclocross rider. Entering Swiss territory through the climb of the Great St. Bernard, with its 2,400 meters, Seixas then headed to Martigny, crossing La Forclaz with a destination certainly not banal.

"Pour bien finir la saison" the Decathlon Cma Cgm athlete brought his remarkable season to a close in the quiet of an alpine outing well away from the peaks of tourist traffic. He did it in a place steeped in symbolism, Sallanches, where the Road World Championships will return in 2027, 47 years after the world championship overwhelmingly won by Bernard Hinault, the last French winner of the Tour de France in 1985. Yes, the French Dauphin seems invested with a special mission.