With Tadej Pogacar, there is a towering favourite for the upcoming Giro di Lombardia, but on Saturday the Slovenian will first have to contend with, among others, Remco Evenepoel and... Paul Seixas. The new French cycling sensation is making his debut in a cycling monument.
With his performances at the U23 level and now also among the pros, the Decathlon AG2R France rider is making fans dream of Tour victory again. Bernard Hinault was the last Frenchman to win the Tour de France in 1985. Seixas is seen by many as a potential Tour winner and thus a successor to the now 70-year-old Breton.
There is no need to doubt Seixas’ form: he has it. The just 19-year-old top talent finished 13th at the World Championships in Rwanda among the pros and last weekend took bronze at the European Championships in Ardèche. Behind Pogacar and Evenepoel, he impressively rode to third place in the road race.
Seixas in the slipstream of Pogacar and Evenepoel – photo: Fotopersburo Cor Vos
The winner of the recent Tour de l'Avenir will have support on Saturday from the following six riders Clément Berthet, Léo Bisiaux, Nicolas Prodhomme, Johannes Staune-Mittet, Bastien Tronchon, and Andrea Vendrame.
The starting signal for the Giro di Lombardia will sound again this year in Como, which was the finish location in 2023. In other words, the route is the same as two years ago. This means that the riders will climb, among others, the Colle di Zambla, the often decisive Passo di Ganda, and the Colle Aperto in the finish city Bergamo.
