For nearly 40 years, France has been searching for a successor to Bernard Hinault, the five-time Tour de France winner who retired in 1986. Now, 19-year-old Paul Seixas has emerged as the most promising candidate to end that drought, with performances that evoke comparisons to cycling legends.
The Long Wait for a French Champion
Since Hinault’s departure, a string of French riders have been touted as potential successors, only to fall short. The list includes Jean-François Bernard, Richard Virenque, Luc Leblanc, Laurent Jalabert, Romain Bardet, Warren Barguil, and Thibaut Pinot. The crisis deepened in 2014 when the French Cycling Federation attempted to launch a professional team modeled on Great Britain’s Team Sky, but the initiative failed. Cyrille Guimard, the mentor of Hinault, Fignon, and Greg LeMond, famously said, “Tour winners are born, not made.” Hinault echoed this in 1993, stating, “Super champions are difficult entities, you don’t get many of them, perhaps 10 a century. You don’t just build them.”
Paul Seixas: A New Hope
Seixas burst onto the scene in 2025 with a series of remarkable performances. In March, he briefly matched Tadej Pogacar’s pace at Strade Bianche. In April, he became the youngest winner of Flèche Wallonne. In June, he fought back from a heavy crash to finish strong in the Tour Auvergne Rhône Alpes. Perhaps most telling was his attack on a descent in the Tour of the Basque Country, where he gained 20 seconds on rivals—a move Guimard called reminiscent of Hinault. Guimard, now 79, noted that Seixas has the power to dominate climbs in a way Bardet, Virenque, and Pinot never could.
Comparisons to Fignon and Hinault
Seixas’s immediate impact mirrors that of Laurent Fignon, who electrified cycling in his first professional season in 1982. Hinault’s development was more gradual, with Guimard carefully managing his progression. Seixas, however, combines youthful audacity with raw power. “Young and carefree,” as Fignon would say. The hype is justified, but caution is warranted. A crash at the Tour Auvergne Rhône Alpes nearly derailed him, highlighting the fine line between brilliance and disaster.
The Challenge Ahead
Seixas faces a formidable task in the 2025 Tour, competing against modern champions Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. The narrative of a Frenchman captivating the home crowd only to succumb to misfortune is a recurring theme, as seen with Pinot in 2019. “The dramatic, tragic story of a Frenchman who has captivated the home crowd and is forced out by ill fortune and great physical suffering is a plot-line the Tour has written many times,” wrote William Fotheringham. This July, Seixas aims to rewrite that script, but the warnings of history are clear.
