Cycling prodigy Paul Seixas said he can barely believe what he has achieved in a stunning breakout year but he had a warning for his rivals: "I always want more."
The 20-year-old Frenchman became the youngest winner of the Giro di Lombardia and finished fourth in his debut Tour de France.
He won his first World Tour-level events at the week-long Tour of the Basque Country and the Fleche Wallonne one-day classic.
Seixas has been tipped to rule the cycling world and said he has no intention of sitting back and basking in his achievements.
"It's important to know how to switch and go to another goal," he said on Saturday in Japan, where he will ride in the Tour de France's Saitama Criterium.
"If you don't do that then you stay on what you have and you don't want more.
"I always want more, and I think the guys who won a lot in their career, they always work like that."
Seixas, who only turned 20 in September, became the fourth-youngest winner of one of cycling's prestigious Monument one-day classics with his Lombardia victory.
That was more than two years younger than Tour de France king Tadej Pogacar and Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel when they won Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
SURPRISING SUCCESS
Even the great Eddy Merckx was 260 days older than Seixas when he won Milan-San Remo in 1966.
Seixas said his success has surprised even himself.
"If you say that I will achieve all this this year to me before the season, I would not believe it," he said.
"I'm still making progress because I'm young, so I'm also in the spirit that I don't know what can happen.
"I know that I can make progress, but also everyone is making progress now."
Seixas has not had things all his own way this year.
He was beaten by Isaac Del Toro in a sprint finish at the Montreal GP, and at the world championships he cramped up in the final few kilometres when in medal contention and finished 15th.
The young Frenchman is known for his level-headed attitude, however, and he believes that "sometimes you lose but it doesn't matter".
"The next morning, you wake up and say 'OK, it's done'," he said.
"I look forward, not backwards.
"Even though I won the Lombardia, I would not look at it when I start the season next year."
TOUR DE FRANCE AMBITIONS
Seixas said he feels more respect from other riders now that he has won races.
But he is not looking for any special treatment and his attitude remains the same.
"You can be the biggest star of the bunch or you can be nothing special, and it would stay the same between each other," he said.
"It's a good thing because I don't think that if you are the best in the world, then everyone needs to be careful about you.
"It's a race, everyone is the same."
Sixas said his team has yet to map out his plan for next season, but winning the Tour de France is his biggest long-term goal.
Does he think he is capable of achieving that in 2027?
"With what I showed this year, I'm not able to win the Tour," he said.
"But we cannot know what can happen next, so I will try to make some progress and then I will see what happens.
"But I think it's more of a very long-term goal."
Seixas likes hiking in his time away from competition, and he is enjoying his first trip to Japan on cycling's end-of-year tour.
He is not worried about his newfound fame, and said the best way to deal with it is "to stay natural".
"Of course there are subjects where I will be a bit flat because I cannot say everything or I don't know," he said.
"But on things like how you manage this or that, I can be completely honest.
"I think to stay honest is the best way."