'He wins here at 19 — Tadej needed a few more editions': Flèche Wallonne press conference brings inevitable comparisons

Paul Seixas (19) won the Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday, further fuelling the hopes of the French nation. The excitement is also alive in the peloton, as they see a young talent emerge who can perhaps challenge the dominance of Tadej Pogacar.

Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) finished second in Huy after Seixas, but was he thinking about victory? Not for a moment: "I needed my kick to secure that second place and he was already gone." Finishing up his press duties, Schmid added a thought that many in the peloton must be thinking: "He's winning here at nineteen. Tadej needed a few more editions for it."

The Swiss knows his facts. Seixas not only rode up the Mur de Huy three seconds faster than Pogacar ever did, but also did once what it took Pogačar four goes to complete. Where Seixas won on first try, Pogačar first finished 53rd (2019, at 19), 9th (2020) and 12th (2022), before winning in 2023. All these facts stoke the comparison fire, and add to the intrigue ahead of Sunday's Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

"I had a different plan this morning, because we wanted to bring me into the Mur — but you can almost never execute a plan perfectly, especially in a race where positioning is so difficult. I only found out at the finish that I had a broken spoke — not from a crash, as appeared in various reports. For a hundred kilometres everyone fought for position, and that was mentally exhausting."

"The team did incredible work to put me in a good position, and on the final climb I went on feel. I watched who was around me, assessed my rivals, and launched my decisive acceleration at 300 metres from the line. My team deserves this victory."

"I surprised myself a little on the Mur, because I genuinely didn't know how I'd handle such a hard climb — one that's different from what I'm used to. It's a very pleasant surprise, even though I did have an idea of what I was capable of based on my experience at the 2025 European Championships in the Ardèche."

"This confirms my suspicion, and I'm glad I was able to test myself on such a steep climb and discover what I'm capable of on gradients like that. I haven't fully taken in the scale of this victory yet. I'm already focused on Liège–Bastogne–Liège — the goals keep coming and you have to stay concentrated."

"I'm just incredibly happy with what we achieved today. Statistics and records are nice, but the most important thing is winning. I focus on what I have to do: win. I'm the team leader and age doesn't matter — when I start a race, it's to win. Today I was able to do that, and the team took care of everything for me."

"It's always difficult to win, because the level at the top is very close. You have to do everything perfectly to take a victory like this. I'm on a great run with a lot of wins, but the whole team works at 200% to create the best possible conditions. We use video analysis, we recon the parcours — and so on."

"Strength alone doesn't win races. As we saw today, there are also crashes, and you have to stay well-positioned and have a strong team to avoid them and limit the damage. It's not easy. Even with the same riders at the start, it's far from guaranteed that I'll be the strongest in the next race."

See you Sunday, Tadej!