A sudden acceleration. 19 km from the finish. A determined grin and a rhythm that will never weaken. Paul Seixas flies. He unseats his dangerous and prestigious rivals one by one. The young leader of the Decathlon CMA CGM team will, at the end of his effort, cross the finish line in Como, win the Tour of Lombardy this Saturday, and win the first Monument of his young career. Enter the legend. A performance that impressed the international press.
In Italy, Corriere dello Sport focuses on “Paul Seixas, the young cycling prodigy who won the Tour of Lombardy. At 20, he became the youngest winner in the history of the Tour of Lombardy. After four decades marked by very rare successes, France has found the champion it was waiting for. » Pier Bergonzi draws, in the Gazzetta dello Sport, a parallel between Seixas and Felice Gimondi on one side, Eddy Merckx and Pogacar on the other: “No one like Seixas, the new giant of cycling crowned during a Lombardy which has already entered history. On the shores of Lake Como, a phenomenon has taken off. The 120th edition of the Classic of Dead Leaves will be remembered for a long time. And like Felice Gimondi (in the years 1969, 1970), he made a place for himself in the era of the “Cannibal. » “The Seixas star” shines in Corriere dello Sport.
In Belgium, RTBF summarizes: “The day of glory has arrived! Paul Seixas won his first Monument this Saturday by winning the Tour of Lombardy. The Frenchman accelerated in the Civiglio and left all the other favorites behind. At the age of 20, he became the youngest rider in history to win the Tour of Lombardy. » Eric Clovio writes in Le Soir: “On the captivating shores of Lake Como, where Remco Evenepoel hoped to finally close an intimate story, Paul Seixas opened a chapter of his own, with the relevance of these talents who always seem to be a little ahead of their age. The Lyonnais won the 120th Tour of Lombardy this Saturday, at the end of a solo raid of 19 kilometers, impressive in accuracy and lightness in such a demanding final (twice San Fermo Della Battaglia with, in the gap, the terrible Civiglio). He confirmed what his legs already announced (it should be remembered that he had won the Flèche Wallonne and the Tour of Catalonia, finishing 2nd in Liège-Bastogne-Liège this season): the nugget of world cycling is an established star. » “The monumental Paul Seixas has (again) written history,” adds the Last Hour.
In Spain, Marca underlines: “Seixas crossed the finish line alone to achieve victory in the first monument of his career. He did it by remaining faithful to the rule that dictates the norm in this wild cycling that dominates the road after the pandemic. The Frenchman won by setting a new record in the decisive ascent. The exploits of Pogacar, Vingegaard or Van der Poel are often accompanied by new records on hills and passes, and, in Lombardy, Seixas shattered the Civiglio record established by Pogacar in 2022 with a time of 12'29''. »
In L'Équipe, Alexandre Roos explains: “Seixas therefore hung his first Monument at just 20 years old, the youngest winner in the history of the Tour of Lombardy, which celebrated its 120th edition. The youngest, too, of one of the five most prestigious classics of the post-war period, better than Eddy Merckx who won his first Milan-San Remo, in 1966, at 20 years and 275 days. Seixas brushed all that aside on Saturday when the story was called; he doesn't care about it like his last school report, all that old stuff that smells like dust. So as an old man, we will write for him how immense, dizzying it is, to be ahead of the best of all time, with this victory in Lombardy but also his entire season, and we hope that those who had found the time and reasons to already express doubts about him, about his talent, little judges who love expeditious justice, have been feeling a little stupid since Saturday evening. »
