Clásica San Sebastián

Hard work by whole Telefónica-backed squad -including stellar Amador, Pedrero, Landa- overcome by Belgian's exhibition to win solo in the Boulevard.

Aged just 19 years old, Remco Evenepoel (DQT) took the better of some of the strongest names in the UCI WorldTour at the 2019 Clásica San Sebastián, the 227km course -with the final climbs to Jaizkibel, Erlaitz, Mendizorrotz and Murgil Tontorra- seeing the Movistar Team completing a huge effort which was nonetheless frustrated by the Belgian’s exhibition.

The early work from Carlos Verona, Héctor Carretero and Jorge Arcas to keep the morning break under control -its final ‘survivor’, Fernando Barceló (EUS), caught at the first passage through the finish (-50km)-, was continued by superb pacing from Mikel Landa, Andrey Amador and Antonio Pedrero, who led the reduced bunch until the foot of Murgil Tontorra. Evenepoel had, however, jumped away earlier from the leading group alongside Toms Skujins (TFS) in the flat section prior to Murgil, and once he got rid of the Latvian’s company, he travelled towards the finish with no opposition from the main candidates.

38″ behind the winner, Alejandro Valverde -who tried to accelerate to reduce Evenepoel’s margin- took 10th place. All in all, it was another big effort from the Movistar Team for ‘Bala’, who will be back into racing in three weeks’ time at the Vuelta a España.

Cover picture (c): Photo Gomez Sport