Paul Seixas abandons Dauphiné due to his injuries. Is the Tour de France at stake?

After starring in one of the most admired performances of the week by returning to the group of favorites after a hard fall in the queen stage, Paul Seixas has been unable to complete the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 2026. The young Frenchman from Decathlon CMA CGM abandoned the race during the eighth and final stage after the physical consequences of the accident suffered at the Grand Colombier took their toll.

Seixas cannot continue: abandons the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in the final stage

Seixas had assured after the seventh stage that he would be at the start on Sunday and that he would fight “until the end for the team”. And he kept his word. The Frenchman started in Beaufort occupying the sixth position in the general classification, 1:54 behind the leader Luke Tuckwell.

However, from the first kilometers it was clear that the recovery from the injuries sustained the previous day was going to be very complicated. The stage began directly with the ascent to the Col du Pré, the first major climb of a day of just 120 kilometers but with four decisive ascents.

The Decathlon CMA CGM rider began to lose contact with the group of favorites already on this first climb and, after cresting the pass and facing the subsequent descent, ended up putting a foot down and getting into his team's car approximately 30 kilometers into the race.

A fall at 70 km/h that marked the end of his Dauphiné

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The abandonment puts an end to a Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes that had definitively confirmed the enormous potential of the 19-year-old French rider.

On Saturday, during the Grand Colombier stage, Seixas suffered a violent fall in a descent while trying to gain positions. The rider himself later admitted that he had made a mistake by entering a curve too quickly and ended up going off onto a gravel area while traveling at about 70 km/h.

Despite the injuries to his hands, elbows, hip, and a knee, he managed to return to the group of favorites thanks to the work of his Decathlon CMA CGM teammates after a chase of nearly 60 kilometers. Later, he would end up conceding 1:21 to the stage winner, Isaac del Toro.

After arriving at the Grand Colombier, the Frenchman admitted that he could barely hold the handlebars normally due to the injuries to his hands, although he remained optimistic about his chances of continuing in the race.

Now looking ahead to the Tour de France

The abandonment comes less than three weeks before the start of the Tour de France, a race in which Seixas is expected to become one of the main attractions of the 2026 edition.

If he finally starts in July, the French rider will be the youngest participant in the French round since the 1930s, a fact that reflects the enormous confidence that Decathlon CMA CGM has placed in him.

For now, there is no official information on the exact extent of the injuries or whether this abandonment may affect his preparation for the Tour. What seems evident is that the effort made to stay in the race after the fall on Saturday ended up taking too high a toll in a final stage that allowed no margin for recovery.