New cycling star Paul Seixas to race the Tour de France at 19, with a whole country watching

Cycling's rising star Paul Seixas will compete at the Tour de France in July, becoming one of the youngest riders ever to take part in the sport's showpiece race.

An entire nation will be hoping he can end a four-decade drought for French male cyclists.

The 19-year-old Frenchman, widely regarded as a potential great and France's best hope for a future Tour de France winner, announced his participation at cycling's showpiece race in a video released by his CMA CGM Decathlon team.

Seixa's precocity is rare. He has been in an impressive form this season, finishing runner-up to four-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar at the Strade Bianche and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. He also became the youngest winner of the Flèche Wallonne.

"It's a childhood dream of mine, something I've often imagined, and now it's very close to becoming reality," said Seixas, a versatile rider with excellent climbing and time trialing skills. "I'm only 19, but as I've already said, age is neither a barrier nor an excuse."

It has been nearly 41 years since a Frenchman last won the Tour de France, when Bernard Hinault claimed the last of his five titles back in 1985. Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt won the women's Tour at her first attempt last year.

Over the past four decades, France has produced talented riders such as Thibaut Pinot, Romain Bardet, Warren Barguil or Julian Alaphilippe. All raised hopes but ultimately fell short, often facing rivals backed by stronger and better-funded teams.

That could change following Seixas' announcement, who has a strong team. Decathlon, a global sporting goods company, has joined forces with CMA CGM, one of the world's largest shipping firms, to invest in a French team with Tour-winning ambitions. The team said last year it aims to win the Tour de France within the next five years.

"We needed to take the time to carefully analyze all the data and also talk with Paul and those around him," said Dominique Serieys, the team's CEO. "He has had a remarkable start to the season and is already among the best riders in the world. And the best are meant to line up at the biggest race on the calendar: the Tour de France. With great humility and in a learning mindset, Paul will start in Barcelona with genuine ambitions to achieve the best possible result in the general classification."

This season, Seixas also became the youngest winner of a WorldTour stage race at the Tour of the Basque Country. Seixas will take part in his first Tour at a younger age than Pogačar, who was 21 when he first appeared at the three-week race and went on to win. Hinault was also older, first lining up at 23.

"My results since the start of the season have given me a lot of confidence; I feel ready and I will have ambitious goals," he said. "It's not my mindset or my view of cycling to line up at the Tour de France with the sole aim of discovering it. I will aim for the best possible overall classification."

If he lines up at the start of the Tour, Seixas will be 19 years, 9 months and 10 days old, making him the youngest participant in nearly 90 years. Even younger was fellow Frenchman Adrien Cento, who set off from Paris in the 1937 Tour at the age of 19 years, 3 months and 26 days, L'Equipe newspaper reported. Tour organizers Amaury Sport Organisation is a subsidiary of the Amaury Group, media and sport group that owns L'Equipe.

As part of his preparations for the Tour, Seixas will also compete at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in June. Following the Tour, he plans to ride in Canada before the world championships and the Tour of Lombardy.

The Tour de France starts on July 4 from Barcelona, Spain. The route is challenging, including two stage finishes at the Alpe d'Huez and a return to Paris' picturesque Montmartre district on the final stage. Covering 3,333-kilometers (2,071-miles), the Tour will visit France's five mountain ranges - the Pyrenees, Massif Central, Jura, Vosges and the Alps, featuring eight mountain stages including five summit finishes.

Pogačar, the best rider of his generation, could become only the fifth rider to win the sport's most prestigious race five times after Belgian Eddy Merckx, Spaniard Miguel Induráin and Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Hinault.