The Seixas Tourmalet ride did not threaten Tadej Pogačar, but it kept the 19-year-old Frenchman in the Tour de France podium conversation after stage 6.
Pogačar underlined his authority on the race with a decisive move a little under 5km from the summit of the Col du Tourmalet. Jonas Vingegaard of Visma initially tried to respond, while Seixas settled into a third group on the road.
Seixas rode with Isaac del Toro of UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Florian Lipowitz of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe as Pogačar stretched the race apart. By the Tourmalet summit, that group was already 1:27 behind the world champion.
Remco Evenepoel of Red Bull and Juan Ayuso of Lidl-Trek later joined the chase. The gap still grew to 2:57 by the finish at Gavernie-Gèdre, 38km after the summit.
Seixas Tourmalet ride limits losses
Seixas sprinted to fifth place on the stage, his second top-five result of the race. He had already finished fourth at Les Angles on Monday.
Speaking to France Télévisions, Seixas called the day really tough and said he had managed the climb well. He described fifth place as respectable and said he had finished where he deserved.
The result lifted Seixas to sixth overall. He now sits 3:55 behind Pogačar, who retook the yellow jersey with his Tourmalet attack and ride to Gavernie-Gèdre.
Seixas is also 28 seconds from third overall. That position currently belongs to Del Toro, who is also wearing the white jersey.
Decathlon see Seixas on schedule
Dominique Serieys, CEO of Decathlon CMA GCM, told RMC Radio that the team was pleased with the performance. He noted that stage 6 was the first major mountain stage since the start of the race.
Serieys said Seixas was positioned where the team expected him to be. He also stressed caution, noting that the Tour de France remains long and has only reached stage 6.
The ride followed weeks of preparation aimed at the opening part of the Tour. Serieys said the first week had started well for Seixas, while adding that the team would review how the stage affected him.
Expectations around Seixas rose earlier this season at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. There, he followed Pogačar on the Redoute and resisted his pressure until the upper section of the Roche-aux-Faucons.
That performance encouraged hopes in France that Seixas might challenge Pogačar at the Tour. On the Tourmalet, however, Serieys acknowledged that the world champion was operating at another level.
Serieys pointed to Pogačar’s 30-second advantage over Vingegaard and his larger margin over the Seixas group on the climb. He said Pogačar then gained more time on the descent and called him the strongest rider in every respect.
For Seixas, the Tour will not end with a first-attempt overall victory. Yet his first July encounter with the Tourmalet gave him another measure of where he stands against the best climbers in the race.