Paul Seixas is the top favorite for the newly titled Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, taking on a quality startlist. If successful, the 19 year-old would be the youngest winner in the race’s history, knocking off Greg LeMond, who won it two weeks before his 22nd birthday.
Come Tour de France in July, Seixas’ main rivals, Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, both absent from the Auvergne Tour, will likely again ride their respective Colnago Y1RS and Cervelo S5 aero road bikes. Meanwhile, Seixas is going a different direction, testing out a new lightweight option.
Van Rysel has the RCR-F aero bike, but this seems to be the next evolution of the RCR-R, the brand's lighter-weight frame but still with aero cues. Most of the Decathlon-CMA CGM team was riding the unreleased bike at stage 1 of what I’m still calling the Dauphiné.
On a hilly day with five categorized climbs and 3,000 meters of climbing, it was EF Education-EasyPost's Alex Baudin who took the win on a stage that featured explosive racing in the finale. Seixas' teammate Leo Bisiaux – also aboard the new bike – was third in a small group of hopefuls 32 seconds back, while Seixas finished safely in a favorites group another 14 seconds behind. Here's more about the new bike the Decathlon team is riding.
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