Paul Seixas has confirmed he will race in the 2026 Tour de France.
Decathlon-CMA CGM announced in a statement on Monday the 19-year-old French cyclist would make his Grand Tour debut at this summer’s race.
Seixas won Itzulia Basque Country in April, adding to the bronze medal he claimed at the 2025 European championships, and is considered France’s next great cycling hope.
France has not produced a Tour de France champion for 41 years, with Bernard Hinault the last home representative to win the tour, back in 1985.
Seixas said he would not be riding at the Tour de France to simply “learn the ropes” and is targeting “the best possible finish”.
“It’s been my childhood dream, something I’ve often imagined, and now it’s just around the corner,” Seixas said in a statement. “I’m only 19 years old, but as I’ve said before, age is neither a barrier nor an excuse.
“This decision, made in consultation with the team management, was carefully considered and developed collectively over the past few days.
“My results since the start of the season have given me a lot of confidence; I feel ready, and I’ll have ambitious goals. It is not in my nature, nor is it my conception of cycling, to compete in the Tour France with the sole aim of learning the ropes; I will be aiming for the best possible finish.”
Seixas’ Decathlon contract runs until 2027.
The 2026 Tour de France runs July 4-26. Slovenian Tadej Pogacar claimed the yellow jersey in 2025, his fourth Tour de France win in six years, with Danish cyclist Jonas Vingegaard winning the other two editions in that timeframe.
‘A no-brainer decision for no ordinary 19-year-old’
Analysis from Duncan Alexander
The decision his entire country has been waiting for has been made. Seixas is going to ride the Tour de France this summer. Taking a teenager to arguably sport’s toughest and most-intense event is as rare as you might imagine, but then again Seixas is no ordinary 19-year-old.
In fact his form this spring has almost the decision a no-brainer for his Decathlon CMA CGM team. Seixas came second in the Volta ao Algarve in February, dropped seasoned pros including the U.S.’s Matteo Jorgensen at the Faun-Ardèche Classic, came second behind Tadej Pogacar at both Strade Bianche and Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and won the fiendishly-hard stage race Itzulia Basque Country, along with prestigious classic La Fleche Wallone too.
It’s a collection of results that would make an entire career for some riders, yet for Seixas it already feels completely normal. The fact that he was the only rider able to follow Pogacar for much of the finale at Liege-Bastogne-Liege last month shows Seixas has the watts to compete with the world champion, and now he’ll get to do so on the sport’s biggest stage.
We probably shouldn’t expect Seixas to challenge Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard at the top of the general classification, a three-week Grand Tour is a brutal learning curve for even the most talented of riders, and his team have said he is lining up “with great humility and a focus on learning”. But Seixas is in the business of shocking people with his audacity, so a stage win or two, especially on his home roads in the Alps, is surely not out of the question.
2026 marks 41 years since France had a home winner — the great Bernard Hinault — at the men’s Tour de France. Seixas looks almost destined to end that long, painful wait. Now we know that the road to that hugely-anticipated moment, whenever it finally comes, begins in Barcelona on July 4.
