Seixas teammate criticizes peloton after crash, but Del Toro sees bigger issue: “It is insane”

The crash involving Paul Seixas in the seventh stage of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes was, understandably, a major talking point both during and after the stage. The young Frenchman from Decathlon CMA CGM was self-critical and took responsibility himself, but teammate Léo Bisiaux would have liked to see a little more help from the peloton.

Seixas went down early in the seventh stage, by his own admission because of “a stupid mistake.” He apologized afterward and then completely emptied himself for the teammates who had helped him. Bisiaux also played a crucial role in bringing the team leader back, after Seixas had at one point been four minutes behind.

That gap was not easy to close, firstly because the peloton kept fighting for a place in the breakaway for a long time. Only once that battle eased slightly was Seixas able to regain contact. By then, however, he had already had to test himself heavily, and on the final climb he eventually lost time.

While Decathlon CMA CGM was proud afterward of the work done by Seixas and his four helpers, Bisiaux also pointed, speaking to Cycling Pro Net, to the lack of help from the peloton. The general classification teams never went full gas, but they did not exactly hit the brakes for Seixas either.

“In the end, he limited the damage pretty well, because we were eventually able to bring him back,” Bisiaux said. “It is a shame that it was not really raced in a sporting way. There were several teams that started riding hard.”

Some will argue that it was part of the fight for the stage win. Others, including Bisiaux, will feel that waiting would have been the more sporting option. “Yesterday, nobody rode for the stage win, and today everybody wanted it. That is strange, but that is how it goes.”

Stage winner Isaac del Toro also had an opinion on the racing style used during stage 7, as he explained in the mixed zone. The fact that Seixas crashed did not surprise him too much. “The peloton takes far too many risks, in every descent, in feed zones, on the flat, and even on climbs there are crashes almost everywhere,” Del Toro said.

“It is insane,” added a critical Del Toro, who managed to stay out of trouble himself. “I am surprised by the number of crashes this week. It is really bizarre. That is why we also tried to control the situation in the race. On Friday we did nothing and the breakaway got a lot of room, so we wanted to control it.”

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]