Seixas Friday Evening Pre-Bergara Press Conference: The Nineteen-Year-Old Answers Eighteen Questions In Twelve Minutes, Keeps The Yellow Jersey On Throughout, And Walks Straight Back Onto The Team Bus
18:47 on Friday evening in the ground-floor conference room of the Hotel Ormazabal in Bergara. Paul Seixas walked in wearing the yellow jersey of the 2026 Itzulia Basque Country, put his hands flat on the table, looked up at the twenty-three credentialled journalists in the room, and said good evening in French, Spanish and English. Decathlon-AG2R press officer Caroline Rivas started the clock at 18:48. Twelve minutes and eighteen questions later Seixas thanked the room, stood up, and walked straight back out to the team bus parked ten metres from the hotel entrance. Every rider at the race — and, by coincidence of scheduling, every Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe sports director in the hotel for their own 19:30 staff briefing on the other side of the lobby — was watching the live feed.
The Friday evening pre-TT press conference is a thirty-year Itzulia Basque Country tradition that the race leader is contractually obliged to attend the night before every overall-deciding time trial. Primož Roglič skipped it twice, in 2021 and 2023. Remco Evenepoel attended it in 2022 for thirty-eight minutes. Jonas Vingegaard sat through it in silence in 2024 and refused to take three of the twenty-one questions. Seixas on Friday evening was neither rude nor expansive. He answered eighteen questions — every one that was put to him — and kept every answer to under forty seconds. The press officer did not need to cut a single response short. "I am not going to stop anyone from asking a question," Seixas said at the start. "I am also not going to give anyone a long answer. Tomorrow is a time trial. I need to sleep."
The tactical substance of what he said was limited but consistent. On the 17.8-kilometre Bergara time trial itself: "I have ridden it twice. Once Monday, once Wednesday. The second 4km section is where the race is won. I know my power number for that section." On Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe's Saturday-morning equipment overhaul for Roglič: "Primož will ride a very good time trial. His bike is not his problem tomorrow. 1'37" is his problem tomorrow." On the 1'38" lead over Roglič: "It is exactly one second more than I need. I do not need more than that." On Juan Ayuso's active Thursday Elorritxueta marking of Roglič on the Izua earlier in the week: "I will thank Juan after the race. Not before." On the Felix Gall and Ben O'Connor domestique sacrifices on the queen stage: "My team-mates have given everything for me this week. Tomorrow is my job. I will ride for them."
The non-tactical questions were more revealing. Asked by L'Équipe's Philippe Brunel about the comparison to the 1984 19-year-old Laurent Fignon Tour de France win — the historical reference every French journalist has reached for this week — Seixas smiled for the first time in the room and said "Laurent Fignon is my father's favourite rider. I have his 1984 yellow jersey at home. I have not put mine next to it yet. Tomorrow night, maybe." Asked by Cycling Weekly's Tom Davidson whether he had spoken to Tadej Pogačar this week: "Tadej texted me on Monday night after the Bilbao time trial. I have not replied yet. I will reply on Sunday morning, after Paris-Roubaix, because that is when he will want to read a message." Asked by Marca's Rafa García whether winning the Itzulia would change his 2026 Tour de France role at Decathlon-AG2R: "You should ask my team. I will ride the Tour de France as the rider my team needs me to be."
The most striking moment of the twelve minutes came in answer to a question from a junior Basque television reporter who asked, almost apologetically, whether Seixas was tired. The room laughed. Seixas did not. "I am tired. I am very tired. I have ridden five days in the Basque Country in April and that is the most tired I have been in my life. But I am not nineteen years old tomorrow. I am a rider trying to win a bike race. Being tired is part of the job." He paused, looked directly at the camera feed, and added: "If anyone in this room believes I am going to lose 1'37" on 17.8 kilometres in a time trial, they should go and watch something else on Saturday afternoon." The press officer closed the conference immediately afterwards. Seixas stood, nodded to the room, and walked out.
The contrast with the previous hour was sharp. Roglič took the same seat at the same table for his own Friday-evening press appearance at 17:30, stayed for thirty-two minutes, and answered every question with a version of "we will see tomorrow". The Slovenian was visibly more relaxed than his team's Saturday-morning equipment overhaul suggests — "the bike is a detail, the race is not decided by details" — but also visibly aware that the arithmetic is against him. "Paul has earned this yellow jersey," Roglič said at one point. "I will ride the best time trial I can tomorrow and then I will congratulate him or I will celebrate. Either is fine. It has been a long spring." The candour cost Roglič nothing. It also confirmed what most of the press room already believed: Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe are already planning Sunday morning's Ardennes transition before the Itzulia has even finished.
Decathlon-AG2R DS Stéphane Goubert held his own four-minute briefing at the Decathlon team bus at 19:05, after Seixas had gone inside. The former Paris-Nice winner was notably sharper than he had been at any point in the week. "Paul has said everything that needed to be said. Tomorrow he rolls at 16:38 from the Bergara start ramp. He will ride the time trial I have planned with him on the turbo in the bus for the last three evenings. He does not need to beat Filippo Ganna tomorrow. He does not need to beat Primož Roglič tomorrow. He needs to ride 17.8 kilometres at a specific number of watts and arrive in the Bergara finish area wearing a yellow jersey. That is all. I am not nervous, and he is not nervous either."
The final question of the week for the Itzulia press corps — the one every journalist in the Hotel Ormazabal lobby was still asking each other at 19:20 — was no longer whether Seixas would win the Itzulia but what would happen next. The 19-year-old has a Tour de France leadership conversation, an Olympic time-trial slot, a Decathlon-AG2R senior-team build and a potential first Grand Tour on the table in the next eight months. None of those questions can be answered before Saturday's 17.8 kilometres are ridden. The answer to Saturday's question — whether Seixas holds the yellow jersey — is one the 19-year-old walked into the conference room in possession of and walked back out with. The Saturday morning race-day briefing will pick the story up in Bergara at 07:30. The start ramp opens at 15:01. Seixas rolls at 16:38. Compiègne and Bergara are both holding their breath at the same time.