Sawt Falasteen - Teen talent Seixas keen for Pogacar, Evenepoel test in Liege

World champion Tadej Pogacar and Olympic gold medallist Remco Evenepoel are the two star names on the start list but Seixas's rapidly burgeoning reputation sees him increasingly mentioned in the same breath.

He arrives at the year's fourth prestigious Monument race on the back of yet another impressive showing for a 19-year-old with a comprehensive victory at La Fleche Wallonne on Wednesday, although neither Pogacar nor Evenepoel were there.

Belgian Evenepoel feels that Seixas is not yet ready to challenge at Liege given that the race covers 260 kilometres and around 90 minutes more effort than was the case at the 200km Fleche Wallonne.

"Seixas's effort was impressive but it will be totally different in a 260km race -- he's only 19," Evenepoel had said at a press conference on Friday.

"Tadej and I undoubtedly have a bit more in the tank."

It is true that Seixas has performed better during his brief career over shorter distances, winning Fleche Wallonne and the Ardeche Classic, finishing second at Strade Bianche and third at the European Championships -- behind Pogacar and Evenepoel.

None of those races surpassed 200km, whereas at the significantly longer Tour of Lombardy (238km) and World Championships (267km) last year, Seixas could finish only seventh and 13th respectively.

But he is eager to test himself against the two giants of the sport, particularly Slovenia's Pogacar, who beat him into second at Strade Bianche.

"Obviously, (racing against Pogacar) can only improve me," the Decathlon CMA CGM team leader said on Saturday.

"I will try to compete with them tomorrow."

But he does not expect to beat Pogacar, yet.

"I raced him at Strade Bianche and we saw the result," said Seixas, who finished a minute down.

"I think Tadej is now the best rider of all time."

- 'You have to be realistic' -

Evenepoel concurred on Saturday at the pre-race team presentation in Liege, saying that Pogacar is "always in front of everyone".

And he welcomed the added challenge that Seixas brings to the race, although he said it would not change much for him in front of his home fans.

"I don't know with him coming that the attention is going away from me, I mean we're in Belgium," Evenepoel said.

"It's good that new guys are coming and that (they) are here to race for the win.

"But for ourselves, it's not changing any strategy -- we believe in ourselves and we believe that we can win the race."

Evenepoel has won La Doyenne -- the oldest race on the calendar which was first held in 1892 -- twice before, in 2022 and 2023, but Pogacar missed one of those and crashed out of the other.

Four-time Tour de France winner Pogacar is a three-time winner of the race and a huge favourite on Sunday.

He has raced just four times this year, winning three of those and only losing in a sprint finish to Wout van Aert at Paris-Roubaix two weeks ago.

Still, he was taking nothing for granted.

"It's looking (like) a lot of competitors are in good shape and we will have a big fight for the victory tomorrow," he said.

"Everybody is leaning more towards Paul Seixas and Remco, they are definitely in great, great shape.

"But we cannot discount others because from every team you have one guy that can win tomorrow."

That's not the opinion of in-form Frenchman Romain Gregoire, who won the Drome Classic this year and finished fourth at both Strade Bianche and Amstel Gold Race, which were won by Pogacar and Evenepoel respectively.

"Of course it's frustrating but you have to be realistic -- right now, Pogacar is clearly a cut above the rest and there's nothing we can do about it," he said.

"Maybe one day he won't be as good, but these last few years we've rarely seen him have an off-day."

Q.Jaber--SF-PST