Seixas Holds All Five Classification Jerseys at Itzulia in Historic WorldTour Domination
Paul Seixas is not merely leading the Itzulia Basque Country — he is monopolising it. After two stages of the six-day WorldTour race, the 20-year-old Frenchman holds every single classification jersey on offer: the general classification, points, mountains, young rider, and combativity. It is a level of dominance that borders on the absurd, and one that has left the Basque Country peloton struggling to comprehend what they are witnessing.
The sweep is a consequence of two breathtaking performances. On Monday, Seixas obliterated the opening time trial in Bilbao, beating Kevin Vauquelin by 23 seconds and Felix Grossschartner by 27 over a course that was supposed to separate the GC contenders by mere seconds, not chasms. On Tuesday, he attacked solo on the final climb to Cuevas de Mendukilo and extended his lead to a staggering one minute and 59 seconds over Primoz Roglic, with Florian Lipowitz at 2:08 and Mattias Skjelmose at 2:14.
The scale of Seixas's advantage is difficult to overstate. He leads the general classification by almost two minutes after just two stages of a six-day race. Pre-race favourites Isaac del Toro and Juan Ayuso — both tipped as the next generation of Grand Tour stars — are languishing minutes behind. Roglic, the most experienced GC rider in the field and a former Vuelta a Espana winner, looks powerless to respond.
Holding all five jerseys simultaneously at a WorldTour stage race is exceptionally rare. It requires a rider to be the strongest on the flat, in the mountains, in the sprints, and in the breakaways — all at once. Typically, these classifications reward different types of riders: the GC leader does not accumulate sprint points, and the combativity prize goes to the most aggressive rider in breakaways, not the race leader. That Seixas has claimed every jersey speaks to the all-conquering nature of his riding. He has been everywhere: winning the time trial outright, attacking solo in the mountains, and accumulating points across every classification along the way.
The Decathlon-AG2R prodigy turned 20 in January. He arrived at the Itzulia with just a handful of professional race days under his belt and no WorldTour victories to his name. Now he has two stage wins, a commanding GC lead, and the kind of complete classification sweep that seasoned champions rarely achieve. The French team, still building around their young talent after restructuring at the end of 2025, have found themselves with a rider capable of rewriting the script entirely.
The question for the remaining four stages is whether Seixas can hold on. The Basque Country terrain is brutally selective, with Wednesday's Basauri circuit, Thursday's queen stage, and the undulating finale still to come. Roglic's Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe squad have the firepower to isolate the young Frenchman, and del Toro's Lidl-Trek team will not surrender a home race without a fight. But the gap is enormous, and Seixas has shown no signs of cracking. If anything, each day appears to make him stronger.
For the broader cycling world, the Seixas phenomenon raises tantalising questions about the future. With Tadej Pogacar dominating the Classics and the Grand Tours, the sport has been searching for the next generational talent to challenge the Slovenian's supremacy. In the Basque hills, wearing all five jerseys of a WorldTour stage race at just 20 years old, Paul Seixas is making his case heard.