Second in the Tour of the Algarve and in Strade Bianche, winner of the Classic Ardèche and the Tour of the Basque Country with an additional three stage wins – the exceptional talent from Decathlon CMA CGM, despite being only 19 years old, is considered a bogeyman of the 90th edition of the Flèche Wallonne, where he could set new age records.
With a win, Paul Seixas would become – by a wide margin – the youngest winner of this traditional Belgian classic. Since it was first held in 1936, the record has been held by Philémon De Meersman, who was 21 years and 150 days old at the time.
The biggest superstars are missing from the peloton and it almost seems like a small French championship, that’s how strong the “Bleus” are – especially Kévin Vauquelin, who came second in each of the last two years. He will certainly also be dependent on the support of Bob Jungels, who would have to help his Ineos teammate as long as he can. Jungels is one of the most experienced riders in the peloton with nine starts at Flèche Wallonne.
The really big ones are already looking towards Liège
Defending champions Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel, on the other hand, are resting to prepare for the grand finale of the Ardennes classics: Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where they will face Seixas in a highly anticipated three-way battle on Sunday.
It is also awaited with great curiosity how the young Frenchman will approach the legendary Mur de Huy, which has been the crucial setting of the Flèche Wallonne for four decades.
As has been the case since 2003 – when Igor Astarloa won as the last escapee – the decision will probably come on the third and final ascent of this extremely steep climb (1.3 km at 9.6%). There the drivers seem to almost come to a standstill, their faces marked by grimaces of pain.
“Beautiful and terrible”
“Winning at the summit of the Mur de Huy is as beautiful as it is terrible,” sums up Julian Alaphilippe, three-time winner of the Flèche, who made the Mur his territory at the peak of his career.
It is questionable whether Paul Seixas can prevail on the Mur de Huy despite his inexperience. Since his brilliant entry into the professional ranks last year, the Lyon native has proven that he can do it all: climb, ride at high speeds on the flat and even shine downhill – like in the Basque Country, where he distanced himself from his main rivals in a descent.
Now it remains to be seen how he performs in the role of a pure “puncheur” – a discipline that requires short but extremely explosive efforts, while he is actually more predestined for long climbs like the Tour de France, which he could possibly tackle as early as this year.
To better master the Mur, he can get advice from Kévin Vauquelin, one of his training partners in Nice, who is also considered his main competitor – as is Lenny Martinez, fourth last year, who has worked intensively on his explosiveness since moving to Bahrain at the beginning of 2025.
Other in-form French punchers such as Romain Grégoire (7th in 2025 and 2024), Benoît Cosnefroy, Axel Laurance or the mountain rider Valentin Paret-Peintre will also want to intervene in the fight, while the Dane Mattias Skjelmose will try to assert himself amid this French superiority.
In addition to Jungels, who will drive for Vauquelin, Kevin Geniets will be the second Luxembourger at the start on Wednesday. It will be Geniets’ fourth start at the Flèche Wallonne and he will be at the service of Grégoire.
