PARIS — Teenage French prodigy Paul Seixas was forced to pull out of the final stage of the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes as he was unable to recover significantly from the injuries he sustained in a high-speed crash.
The 19-year-old was dropped on the opening climb at the start of Sunday’s eighth and final stage and threw in the towel at the end of the subsequent descent, just 30km into the tough mountainous route.
He had suffered multiple abrasions on his hands, arms and legs during his crash on a tricky descent.
He later said that he had been doing 70 kph at the time and slid up to 30 metres along the tarmac.
On Sunday he had vowed not to quit, although he admitted being in pain. “He had a good night, there was no problem,” his Decathlon CMA CGM team manager Julien Jurdie told France TV.
“But then the soreness came back quickly. The start wasn’t easy, so we didn’t take any risks,” Jurdie added according to AFP.
“Paul told us that he wasn’t really feeling well, that he had a bit more pain on the left and the right.”
Jurdie said that the decision was then taken to pull him out to protect him ahead of next month’s Tour de France.
Seixas had impressed Saturday when his team helped him battle back to catch the peloton following a high-speed 60km-long chase after he dropped four minutes behind due to his crash.
He managed to finish seventh on the stage, just 1min 21sec behind the winner, Isaac Del Toro, leaving him sixth overall at just under two minutes off yellow and blue jersey holder Luke Tuckwell of Australia.
That was arguably one of his most impressive rides to date in his short career, which has seen him take major victories at La Fleche Wallonne and the Tour of the Basque Country.
