Paul Seixas: "I deserved to be left behind"

June 13 ^th 2026 - 17:19

"It was my mistake, I have no excuse. I was going too fast through a bend. I’ve developed the habit of overtaking riders on the descent to make up places without spending too much myself, but it’s a risky strategy. Today I paid the price; I took too many risks. I misjudged a bend. I was going too fast. I apologise to all the riders I may have put in danger. I ended up between the ditch and the gravel; we were going down at 70 km/h and I skidded on the tarmac, burning myself all over.

I thought I wouldn’t be able to get back on. I was absolutely knackered, scared I’d really hurt myself. I started again three or four minutes behind, and I thought to myself, ‘That’s it, it’s over, we’ll never catch up.’ But the lads in my team are mad. Dan Hoole and Stefan Bisseger did a massive job on the flat, it was incredible. Then Aurel [Paret-Peintre] went full throttle up the climb. I suffered so much on the descents. In any case, they gave it 200% because of a stupid mistake I made.

I hung on, trying to regain my strength. I couldn’t really support myself on my arms, but I told myself, ‘I’m going to do this anyway, no matter how much it hurts.’ There were five lads who went out of their way for me when they could easily have left me behind, in the middle of nowhere; that was all I deserved. Hats off to them. They need to know that I love them all."