Paul Seixas is heading into the final days of his Tour de France debut in contention for the podium and the white jersey of best young rider.
The Frenchman, leading Decathlon CMA CGM on his Grand Tour debut, lies just 20 seconds away from third-placed Isaac del Toro, with three key Alpine mountain stages filling this week before the race hits Paris.
There have been a few things to get used to for 19-year-old Seixas and his teammates this July, though, as Tiesj Benoot told Het Nieuwsblad recently.
"In the first stage in Barcelona, we rode through rows of fans," Benoot recalled.
"Paul asked me: 'Do you think it's going to be like this all day?' I answered: 'Paul, not all day, but all week'."
He also noted that there is something of a generation gap between himself at 32 and his teenage leader. However, the differences between him and more experienced leaders aren't holding him back.
"There is a generation gap somewhere. Paul plays games on his phone, I don't," said Benoot.
"But you can also tell that he has what it takes to be a leader. He has already made progress in that regard during this Tour.
"He speaks up more and more often in the team meetings and clearly conveys what he expects. At that age, I find that quite remarkable."
One minor difficulty arose during the opening days of the Tour, when Seixas struggled to make himself heard over the radio after puncturing on the hilly Montjuïc Park circuit on stage 2 in Barcelona.
"Paul said that on the radio, but they hadn't heard him," said Benoot. "Paul then immediately swapped bikes with Aurélien Paret-Peintre, while the team car was driving right behind him. That wasn't necessary.
"After that, he wanted to swap again to be on his own bike for the final, but that hadn't come across properly on the radio either. I eventually said: 'Paul wants to swap.'
"You could see there that Paul hasn't raced with earpieces very often yet. You have to make sure you are audible. Really grab your radio and turn your head towards it.
"Those are small things, but that can be the difference between being understood or not."
Despite some teething troubles, Seixas is well in with a shot of a podium place at the weekend, with two mountain stages to L'Alpe d'Huez the main challenges standing in his way.
Benoot, racing his 10th Tour, is happy with his own level, meanwhile. The Belgian moved to Decathlon CMA CGM over the winter but didn't make his debut until the Tour de Suisse after undergoing surgery for a herniated disc back in February.
He's currently 20th overall, raced in the breakaway on stage 17, and has proved a key lieutenant for Seixas.
"I am surprised by the level I am reaching. I doubted for a long time whether I would make the Tour," said Benoot.
"I had a second operation at the end of February. After that, I did exercises off the bike for four weeks. I only started my real training around Paris-Roubaix. It took a while before I really felt my legs starting to turn.
"But even then, there was doubt: how would my back react to long climbing training sessions? I also had to be able to time trial, with the team time trial at the start in Barcelona."
He's racing at an even higher level than he reached with his old squad, Visma-Lease a Bike, Benoot said, with heat training before the Tour playing a big part in that.
"At Visma, I never rode a Tour without a bad day in the first two weeks. Here, I am performing at my best possible level every day," he said.
"Normally, I struggle in the heat. I sweat excessively. I was tested for that and ranked in the top three of all measurements ever, in both sweat volume and salt concentration. But here in the Tour, I haven't had much trouble with it.
"Due to my training camp in Sierra Nevada and the heatwave in Belgium, I trained in the heat for six weeks before the Tour. That is helping me now. The fact that I have so little competition in my legs before the Tour – only the Tour de Suisse – might just mean I am fresher."
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