10 victories in 2025 to 21 years old … Paul Magnier, the new pearl of the French sprint which rises and dreams of classics

Without being a pure sprinter, Isérois is by far the French runner who won the most success this season.

Brilliant on the Tour of Slovakia which ended on Sunday September 21 and of which he won the first four stages, Paul Magnier brought his total to ten victories in 2025. No French runner had achieved this performance in the same season since Arnaud Démare in 2020. This year, only six runners did better than him: Tadej Pogacar (16 victories), Mads Pedersen (14), Isaac. Del Toro (13), Matthew Brennan (12) and Olav Kooij (11).

The native of Laredo in the United States (Texas), but who grew up near Grenoble, is making a name for himself in the peloton at just 21 years old. Under the colors of the Belgian Sudal training Quick-Step, one of the best in the world, it especially shone in massive sprints when the tray was quite accessible. We saw him raise his arms for the first time in World Tour on the Tour de Poland this summer, and he did not go far from the victory on the Tour of Italy (3rd in Naples) and on the first Flanderian classic of the season, the Het Nieuwsblad (2nd).

“90% of runners do not reach 10 career victories. He already has 15 in two years. It's a sniper the guy”notes Lilian Calmejane, cycling consultant for France Télévisions. Alongside another Paul (Seixas) already in full media light, Magnier embodies the next generation of French cycling. From there to become the new big tricolor sprinter and the long-awaited successor of the Demore-Bouhanni-Coquard generation (born between 1990 and 1992)? Not really. Paul Magnier himself does not see himself making a career as a pure sprinter. “Winning the sprint is an advantage, but the classics make me dream more”he insisted In The team (Paying article)Monday.

That's good, his team, Sudal Quick-Step, is on the same wavelength. “We will see what future he will have. I think he will not really be a sprinter. He is a bit like Tom Boonen. He goes very quickly, can beat the best sprinters, but he is for the classics with small bumps. It is someone who wants to run, who can be in the head group and play, rather than waiting to do the sprint”explains to franceinfo: Sport his coach in the Belgian team, Frederik Paperback. In 2026, Paul Magnier will be entrusted with greater responsibilities and the Flanderian classics of the spring will be part of his program.

“He will evolve in the hierarchy, but we will not say in the newspapers that he will win the Tour des Flanders. I do not think it is possible today, but why not a semi-classic”specifies Frederick Paper, for whom it is important to be “prudent” With the development of the young Frenchman. Next year, Sudal Quick-Step will operate a pronounced turn and will pick up for its original identity, that of a formidable pack on the classics, once Remco Evenepoel has left the ship. Jasper Stuyven and Dylan Van Baarle, two winners of experienced monuments, will strengthen the Belgian training whose sprinter n ° 1 will remain the Belgian Tim Merlier, in view of the last Tour de France with two stages victories.

“He is a very smiling, relaxed. It is not the sprinter who needs to put himself in his bubble with the headphones before a race to Nacer Bouhanni”.

Lilian Calmejane, ex-professional caver

In Franceinfo: Sport

“There will be expectations. He will have to cross a course and show his skills at the highest level. He has already shown them, but on races of a slightly lower level, note notre consultant Lilian Calmejane. For the moment, it's a bit of a pleasure bike. He doesn't necessarily feel the pressure too much. It is fresh “. This freshness, the Sudal Quick-Step team intends to protect it. The careers of professional runners start earlier and earlier and the loss of pleasure on a bicycle becomes an increasingly common symptom in the peloton, evidenced by the Tadej Pogacar outings at the end of the Tour de France.

“The appearance of having fun in the races is very important for him. We must respect thisassumes Frederik Paperback. You can lighten your calendar. He needs space to do mountain biking. We can compare it to Van der Poel, who does not want to do that the road “. This year, Paul Magnier participated in a Gran Fondo round (a form of long distance cyclosportive) for pleasure and won it. “It's a bicycle bit”says Damien Sigaud, its sports director during his visit to the Juniors at the Charvieu-Chavagneux Isère Cycling between 2021 and 2022.

Paul Magnier accompanied his father Laurent out of an early age. After having touched a little all sports, including athletics, skiing and tennis, he only turned to road cycling only late. He is a mountain biker above all. “The mountain biking specialties served him a lot in the management of the trajectories and knowing how to rub in a peloton. He was a kid full of talent. Whenever we took him on a competition, we knew we were going to make a result. For his first race in the second year juniors, he won in March a 'all category' in the middle of the elites when he was only 17 years old. At the time, he really had another, thinner, more climber profile. He was also very good in the background “recalls Damien Sigaud.

The sports director of the CCIC38 sees some similarities with Julian Alaphilippe, who shares with Paul Magnier a great explosiveness and the ability to achieve clear objectives. The young tricolor talent dreams of one day being world champion like his elder, who took him under his wing at his first internship at Soudal Quick -Step in 2023. The Tour of Flanders -which Magnier discovered in 2025 (62nd) -and Paris -Roubaix are also part of the list.

Before switching to the big leagues, he must already complete this season with two second zone races, the Croatian Tour and that of Guangxi in China, which could allow him to inflate his total victories and his confidence before a pivotal year.