🎥 Is Pogacar’s Coll de Rates KOM unbreakable? Seixas falls 40 seconds short, even with support team

Tadej Pogacar’s Strava KOM on the Coll de Rates has been the talk of the cycling world in recent weeks. On December 20 last year, the Slovenian set a record time on the climb, and it might just remain untouchable for now. That’s the tentative conclusion after an attempt by Paul Seixas.

Seixas, an 18-year-old rising star, will race for Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale in 2025, skipping the team’s development squad due to his outstanding results in 2024. He claimed the junior world championship in time trialing and finished seventh in the road race. His ProcyclingStats profile shows an impressive string of victories.

When Seixas found himself near the Coll de Rates on January 2, he decided to take on the challenge. The Spanish climb, 6.43 kilometers long with an average gradient of 5.5 percent, became a hot topic after Pogacar and a full UAE Team Emirates train smashed the record late last year. Pogacar ascended the climb in an astonishing 12 minutes and 21 seconds, shaving 17 seconds off the previous best set by Peter Øxenberg Hansen in March 2024.

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Live images of 🇸🇮 Tadej Pogacar's successful Coll de Rates KOM attack! 🚀 🎬 Alexander Depoorter

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Seixas nowhere near Pogacar's record time

Paul Seixas attempted to challenge Pogacar's KOM but lacked the luxury of a UAE Team Emirates train to support him. Instead, friends from his amateur team, Hexagone-Corbas Lyon Métropole, stepped in to help. Each friend took a portion of the climb, pacing Seixas, who tackled the final section solo.

The French rider didn’t come close to Pogacar’s record, completing the climb in 13 minutes and 1 second—40 seconds slower than the world champion. Does this make Pogacar’s record unbeatable for now? "We'll be back with a real train," Seixas promised on social media. And why not? He did manage to beat Jonas Vingegaard’s 2018 time of 13 minutes and 2 seconds, set during a KOM attempt with his then-team ColoQuick.

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Who is Paul Seixas, the new prodigy of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale?

We certainly haven’t heard the last of Seixas. Pogacar may remain out of reach for now, but in a December interview with Cyclism'Actu during the team’s media day, the young climber shared his big dreams. "The Tour de France is every Frenchman's dream, and I want to become as versatile a rider as possible," he said.

Standing at 1.85 meters and weighing 62 kilograms, Seixas is a tall rider with much to prove. "Perhaps I have a gift for time trialing, but I’m working hard on my climbing abilities. There’s room for improvement in every area," he added. Seixas is also studying at EM Lyon Business School. "That’s important for the future—you can’t be a cyclist forever."

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