Paul Seixas hasn’t yet turned a pedal in anger (or French emotional equivalent of anger) at the Tour de France, but the 19-year-old French phenom is threatening to break the sport’s financial ceiling.
Rumors suggest Pinarello-Q36.5 has thrown its hat into the ring to sign Seixas when his current contract with Decathlon-CMA CGM expires at the end of 2027. The reported figure is a jaw-dropping €13 million per season. That’d buy him a lot of copies of Striking the Sun.
If those numbers materialize into ink on paper, it would make Seixas the highest-paid rider in the professional peloton, eclipsing Tadej Pogačar’s estimated €8 million to €10 million base salary at UAE Team Emirates-XRG.
Which, uh. Seems unlikely. But Pinarello-Q36.5 might have deep enough pockets to do it.
Billionaire Backing and the Q36.5 Masterplan
Pinarello-Q36.5 isn’t just throwing imaginary money around. The Swiss-registered squad is bankrolled by billionaire Ivan Glasenberg, and they have been aggressively spending. Glasenberg’s checkbook already secured Tom Pidcock ahead of the 2025 season, and the team went on a signing spree, adding nearly a dozen riders for 2026 ahead of their Tour de France debut next month.
While team officials have predictably declined to comment on the €13 million rumor, Seixas’s agent confirmed that Pinarello-Q36.5 has actively reached out. Securing the sport’s most hyped young GC talent to ride alongside Pidcock would guarantee the team wildcards and relevance for the next decade. Hell, it might even get them the next non-Pogacar Tour win.
A War for the Next Generation
Pinarello-Q36.5 is far from Seixas’s only suitor. Anyone with a pulse and a deep budget is circling the Decathlon-CMA CGM camp. Seixas has been heavily linked to UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Visma-Lease a Bike, Netcompany-Ineos, and Lidl-Trek.
The hype does seem justified. The 19-year-old is viewed as the crown jewel of the next generation, and looks capable of challenging the Pogačar and Vingegaard duopoly in the high mountains.
Decathlon-CMA CGM, however, isn’t going to let their homegrown superstar walk away without a fight. The French squad is reportedly working frantically to sweeten their own offer beyond 2027 in an attempt to lock down the rider who just might be France’s best hope for a yellow jersey in decades.
Here’s wishing him a wonderful Tour debut in a couple of weeks, and generational wealth as a result.
