The cycling world is abuzz with anticipation as Tadej Pogacar, the reigning Tour de France champion, prepares to defend his Strade Bianche title in 2026. With a legendary history of long-range attacks on the picturesque white gravel roads of Tuscany, Pogacar has become an icon in the sport. However, the emergence of a new challenger, Paul Seixas, has the cycling public on the edge of their seats, wondering if Pogacar's reign may soon be challenged.
Seixas, a 19-year-old French sensation, has already achieved more than Pogacar at the same age. Last year, Seixas won the Tour de l'Avenir, the junior equivalent of the Tour de France, as an 18-year-old. This year, he took his first professional victory by winning a stage of the Volta ao Algarve. Seixas' performance at the Ardèche Classic, where he casually rode off Matteo Jorgenson, a two-time winner of the prestigious Paris-Nice race, while taking a sip from his water bottle, has the cycling community talking.
"For me, he's already in the top five," said former cycling team manager Marc Madiot. "There is Pogacar, Isaac Del Toro, you can keep Jonas Vingegaard in there for now, there's Seixas, Mathieu van der Poel. Seixas has something that others don't have, or that few have, like Pogacar or Van der Poel. Lionel Messi, when he started kicking a ball, already had something that the others didn't have."
The pair raced against each other several times last year, with Pogacar coming out on top. Seixas finished third at the European Championships, seventh at the Giro di Lombardia, and eighth in the Critérium du Dauphiné stage race, all won by Pogacar. However, Seixas has been rubbing shoulders with the world's best riders for close to a year now, and his performance at the Ardèche Classic suggests that he may be ready to challenge Pogacar.
Pogacar, the reigning world champion, will have Del Toro alongside him in his UAE team. However, his other important one-day Classics domestiques, Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narvaez, are both missing through injury. Another potential challenger to Pogacar is Briton Pidcock, the two-time Olympic mountain bike champion who finished second last year. Pidcock won the race in 2023 and showed impressive form in winning a stage at the Vuelta a Andalucía last month.
Another former Strade Bianche winner, Wout Van Aert, will also be on the start line in his second race since breaking his ankle in December during the cyclo-cross season. Van Aert started his road season on Wednesday in the Samyn Classic in Belgium but lost all chances of fighting for the win when he suffered a puncture 10km from the end that he blamed on 'sabotage'.
In my opinion, the rise of Seixas is a fascinating development in the cycling world. While Pogacar has dominated the sport for several years, the emergence of a new challenger like Seixas reminds us of the ever-evolving nature of the sport. It's exciting to think about the possibilities that lie ahead for both riders, and I can't wait to see how their rivalry unfolds in the coming years. Personally, I think that Seixas has the potential to become a dominant force in the sport, and I'm eager to see how he measures up against Pogacar in the Strade Bianche.
