France’s young cycling star Paul Seixas dropped out of the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes on the last stage. Isaac del Toro took the overall victory.
Seixas, the 19-year-old from Team Decathlon CMA CGM, gave up on Sunday at the start of the Hors Catégorie climb to Bisanne, the second of four categorized climbs of the day.
The Frenchman had fallen the day before and was so handicapped by his injuries that he was no longer able to keep up with the leaders in the final phase of the penultimate section. In the overall standings he fell back to sixth place. Now came the task of the dress rehearsal for the Tour de France, which begins in Barcelona in just under three weeks.
Del Toro makes the overall victory clear
Seixas had risen to the top of the world in the spring with remarkable performances in one-day races and shorter tours. Based on his performance at the time, experts believed that he could at least temporarily keep up with the greats Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard on the tour. France has been waiting for a triumph on the Tour since Bernard Hinault in 1985.
Isaac del Toro secured overall victory in the Tour Auvergne Rhone-Alpes. Thanks to his success on the tough final stage of 120 kilometers on the Plateau de Solaison, the Mexican replaced Luke Tuckwell (Australia). Del Toro, who will be Pogacar’s main helper in the Tour of France starting July 4th in Barcelona, had already won the penultimate stage on Saturday