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Paul Seixas may be the youngest Tour de France debutant since 1937, but he is not lacking in confidence. Reminded of the scale of the challenge facing him, in hoping to usurp the dominant four-time champion, Tadej Pogacar, he said calmly: “There are different ways to win a cycling race.”

Seixas fever is running high in Barcelona on the eve of the Tour, even if the 19-year-old says that he “won’t take risks for anything other than the general classification.”

“I feel ready to give everything I have and to achieve the best result possible. I am not setting myself a more specific goal because I am heading into the unknown, having never raced an event this long and demanding before,” he said.

In taking on Pogacar as well as his longstanding rival, Jonas Vingegaard, winner of the 2026 Giro d’Italia and a double Tour champion, the teenager is setting the bar almost unfeasibly high.

Despite that challenge, just the mention of his name now sets French pulses racing. The hope is that he is French cycling’s Kylian Mbappé. “Vivement Juillet!” blared L’Equipe after Seixas announced his Tour debut in May, adding a little sheepishly: “No pressure!”

As the Tour starts there is feverish speculation, not just over his performance but also his future.

Currently racing for Decathlon CMA CGM, he has now been linked to every top team in the sport – including Pogacar’s – and, given his youth, is expected to soon have a higher market value than the UAE Team Emirates XRG leader himself.

Seixas says he is “in top form,” despite crashing heavily at speed less than a month ago. “After my abandon from the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, I was able to resume my preparation almost as planned, with a few adjustments to some training sessions because of my injuries,” Seixas said.

That fall, on a sinuous descent, gave pause for thought and highlighted his youth, but his bright-eyed and positive attitude has swept such concerns aside.

Asked if he found the Tour daunting he said: “It is more about seeing how my recovery is after 10 to 15 days. It is more about questions than fears.” He has now amassed thousands of kilometres of altitude training, first at Sierra Nevada and then Les Arcs, and seems to have no fear of what lies ahead.

Although his debut Tour will be a journey into the unknown, there is a sense of destiny about Seixas, who has rivalled Pogacar this year with his explosive attacking style.

The pair went head to head on the steep climbs of the Belgian classic, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, in April, and the French rider has also won the Itzulia Basque Country stage race, the Faun-Ardeche Classic and La Flèche Wallonne.

The Tour, of course, is a different beast, and if Seixas was to win in Paris, he would be the youngest winner in its history. Yet even the defending champion seems impressed. “He is very mature for his age,” Pogacar said after Seixas had almost beaten him in Liège.

“He rides with his heart, without overthinking,” the Slovenian added, which, after the years of performance being driven by data, will be music to many ears.

Yet Seixas combines a traditional French background of a childhood spent riding in the Alps, with the intellectual rigour and analysis of a data-driven elite athlete.

One of the key elements of the infrastructure around him will be the experience of Luke Rowe, who rode in five consecutive Tour winning teams with Sky, and is now a sports director at Decathlon CMA CGM.

“He races with no fear,” Rowe said of Seixas. “He just goes for it.” Rowe podcasts and remains good friends with his former teammate turned rival, Geraint Thomas, now director of racing at Netcompany Ineos, who are another of Seixas’s admirers.

Both men will have high hopes of success in Saturday evening’s opening team time trial through Barcelona to the uphill finish in the Montjuïc Olympic park.

If the prospect of another Pogacar win induces a sense of ennui, just as it did with other serial Tour winners, there are grounds to believe that, physically and mentally, the Slovenian is at his peak.

Pogacar had seemed weary of cycling when last year’s Tour ended but the 27-year-old has been rejuvenated this season having won the Tour of Switzerland as well as Milan-Sanremo, the Tour of Romandie, Strade Bianche, the Tour of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Even so, he maintains that “there are quite a few guys who can aim for the victory,” including his own teammate, the prodigious Mexican Isaac Del Toro, who almost rivals Seixas in terms of youth and ambition.

“Isaac is a very important member of this team. We are aiming to win the Tour and we will try to achieve that. It will not be an easy race, but we have a lot of tactics,” Pogacar said, suggesting that Del Toro might share some of the pressures of leadership.

Beyond Seixas and Pogacar, there are of course, others. If Netcompany Ineos seem a little lost without their mooted leader, Oscar Onley, who is sidelined through injury, then both Vingegaard and particularly double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel – already being dismissed by some – will be keen to have their say.

Right now though, there is little doubt that the Tour’s opening weekend will be the “Paul and Pogi” show. The others will just have to bide their time and limit their losses.