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Donostia - Donostia (Basque for the city of San Sebastián), 227.3 km

19-year old Remco Evenepoel wins Clasica San Sebastián after attacking with 20 kilometers to go. Photo: Getty Sport

Weather at San Sebastián at 2:00 PM, local time: 26C (78F), sunny, with the wnd from the north at 11 km/hr (7 mph). No rain is forecast.

The race: Here's the report from winner Remco Evenepoel's Deceuninck-Quick Step team.

Remco Evenepoel kept hitting new heights and showed the depth of his talent once again, when he pulled off a massive performance on Saturday afternoon against a star-studded field. A debutant in a World Tour one-day race, Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s neo-pro soloed to an unforgettable victory at the 39th edition of Clasica San Sebastian, which took the bunch over a demanding 227.3km-long course littered with seven climbs, featuring narrow roads and excruciating gradients.

“Winning this race was one of my dreams and now that I have done this, at my very first participation, all I can say is that it’s just incredible and wonderful”, an overwhelmed Remco said after being congratulated by teammate Enric Mas, who finished eighth from a select group that came home more than half a minute behind the prodigious Belgian.

Remco Evenepoel’s last 25 kilometers at Clasica San Sebastian, where he started as the youngest rider in the peloton, were as impressive as his magnificent victory that earned him the plaudits: dropped on the Mendizorrotz climb, he chased hard on the descent, joined the peloton  just as the road flattened out despite having a half a minute deficit, and then responded to an attack of Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo), with 20 kilometers left.

Surprisingly for many, the duo’s gap escalated quickly and by the time they arrived at the bottom of the ludicrously steep Murgil Tontorra (2.1km, 10.1%), they were nearly 50 seconds clear, despite a concerted effort of several teams. On this bruiser of a climb, Evenepoel put in an amazing work-rate, ensuring the gap wouldn’t go down, before dislodging his companion and pushing the pedal to the metal. Meanwhile, not far behind, Wolfpack teammate Enric Mas was doing a superb job shutting down attacks from the favourites’ group.

“On the narrow roads before the penultimate climb I lost a few positions and that’s why I was distanced, but in the downhill I went extremely fast and managed to come back. Then I decided to attack so I could be in front on the last climb and help Enric. But we went full gas and found out that we had a significant advantage at the start of the hill, so I kept going, while Enric did a marvellous job countering the moves”, Remco explained when asked how the race unfolded on Murgil Tontorra.

After storming away on the climb and keeping his buffer nearly intact, the 19-year-old absolutely bossed the descent taking to the famous Boulevard in the center of San Sebastian and entered the final kilometer with enough seconds in hand to celebrate in disbelief the biggest victory of his career so far, the 38 seconds between him and the runner-up being the largest gap in two decades at the prestigious one-day race.

“I came here for the experience and all of the sudden, with less than 20 kilometers to go, I was there fighting for victory. In the last 3-4 kilometers I had tears in my eyes and it was all very emotional, because I realised that this was going to be one big and important moment of my career. I still can’t believe it, it’s something incredible and I will need a few days for everything to sink in. It’s been a great race for us and I want to thank everyone in the team for the confidence they always give me and their fantastic support”, said Remco, now the third-youngest rider in history to win a Classic.

Following his fourth victory of what is a stellar neo-pro season, Evenepoel talked of his next appointment, which comes in just a few days: “I will take part next week in the time trial race at the European Championships, another important event that I get to discover. I don’t know what to expect, but I am motivated to go there and give my best. I am also very happy that I will ride for the first time in a race on the new Specialized Shiv equipped with disc brakes. I have used it in training and it’s incredibly fast, and this makes me super eager to ride it in an official competition.”

Complete results:

227.3 kilometers raced at an average speed of 39.594 km/hr

1	EVENEPOEL Remco	Deceuninck-Quick Step	5hr 44min 27sec
2	VAN AVERMAET Greg	CCC Team	@ 38sec
3	HIRSCHI Marc	Team Sunweb	s.t.
4	IZAGIRRE Gorka	Astana	s.t.
5	MOLLEMA Bauke	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
6	KONRAD Patrick	BORA-hansgrohe	s.t.
7	VANENDERT Jelle	Lotto-Soudal	s.t.
8	MAS Enric	Deceuninck-Quick Step	s.t.
9	WOODS Michael	EF Education First	s.t.
10	VALVERDE Alejandro	Movistar	s.t.
11	CICCONE Giulio	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
12	MOLARD Rudy	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
13	SKUJIŅŠ Toms	Trek-Segafredo	0:41
14	CARTHY Hugh	EF Education First	0:46
15	DUNBAR Eddie	Team INEOS	0:56
16	SIMON Julien	Cofidis	1:07
17	KREUZIGER Roman	Dimension Data	s.t.
18	PADUN Mark	Bahrain Merida	1:15
19	BILBAO Pello	Astana	s.t.
20	CLARKE Simon	EF Education First	s.t.
21	MADOUAS Valentin	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
22	MÜHLBERGER Gregor	BORA-hansgrohe	1:22
23	BOOKWALTER Brent	Mitchelton-Scott	s.t.
24	HAMILTON Lucas	Mitchelton-Scott	1:23
25	KUSS Sepp	Jumbo-Visma	1:26
26	DEVENYNS Dries	Deceuninck-Quick Step	1:43
27	ROUX Anthony	Groupama-FDJ	1:46
28	CHERNETSKI Sergei	Caja Rural-Seguros RGA	s.t.
29	PEREZ Anthony	Cofidis	s.t.
30	BERNARD Julien	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
31	CASTROVIEJO Jonathan	Team INEOS	s.t.
32	MARTIN Dan	UAE-Team Emirates	2:24
33	CAICEDO Jonathan	EF Education First	s.t.
34	FRAILE Omar	Astana	3:57
35	GALLOPIN Tony	Ag2r La Mondiale	5:26
36	LASTRA Jonathan	Caja Rural-Seguros RGA	5:59
37	RODRÍGUEZ Óscar	Euskadi Basque Country-Murias	s.t.
38	DE TIER Floris	Jumbo-Visma	s.t.
39	ARANBURU Alex	Caja Rural-Seguros RGA	s.t.
40	HONORÉ Mikkel	Deceuninck-Quick Step	s.t.
41	ITURRIA Mikel	Euskadi Basque Country-Murias	s.t.
42	WARBASSE Larry	Ag2r La Mondiale	s.t.
43	KEUKELEIRE Jens	Lotto-Soudal	s.t.
44	BAKELANTS Jan	Team Sunweb	s.t.
45	SMITH Dion	Mitchelton-Scott	s.t.
46	HÄNNINEN Jaakko	Ag2r La Mondiale	s.t.
47	VILLELLA Davide	Astana	s.t.
48	ROSSETTO Stéphane	Cofidis	6:31
49	COSTA Rui	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
50	PARET-PEINTRE Aurélien	Ag2r La Mondiale	s.t.
51	MCCARTHY Jay	BORA-hansgrohe	s.t.
52	ELISSONDE Kenny	Team INEOS	s.t.
53	POLANC Jan	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
54	ROSSKOPF Joey	CCC Team	s.t.
55	GUERREIRO Ruben	Katusha-Alpecin	6:53
56	ZOIDL Riccardo	CCC Team	7:54
57	RODRÍGUEZ Cristián	Caja Rural-Seguros RGA	8:27
58	MEINTJES Louis	Dimension Data	8:57
59	ROCHE Nicolas	Team Sunweb	s.t.
60	SERRANO Gonzalo	Caja Rural-Seguros RGA	9:22
61	PEDRERO Antonio	Movistar	9:56
62	AMADOR Andrey	Movistar	s.t.
63	PETERS Nans	Ag2r La Mondiale	10:23
64	DE LA PARTE Víctor	CCC Team	s.t.
65	EG Niklas	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
66	FRÖHLINGER Johannes	Team Sunweb	11:23
67	SMIT Willie	Katusha-Alpecin	s.t.
68	BIDARD François	Ag2r La Mondiale	s.t.
69	BARCELÓ Fernando	Euskadi Basque Country-Murias	12:08
70	BRAVO Garikoitz	Euskadi Basque Country-Murias	s.t.
71	RIABUSHENKO Alexandr	UAE-Team Emirates	12:46
72	BARTHE Cyril	Euskadi Basque Country-Murias	14:13
73	GREGAARD Jonas	Astana	s.t.
74	TOUZE Damien	Cofidis	15:08
75	IRIZAR Markel	Trek-Segafredo	15:11
76	BOL Jetse	Burgos-BH	15:17
77	RUBIO Diego	Burgos-BH	s.t.
78	BOUWMAN Koen	Jumbo-Visma	16:29
79	VAN RENSBURG Jacques	Dimension Data	16:58
80	NICOLAU Joel	Caja Rural-Seguros RGA	17:14
81	SESSLER Nícolas	Burgos-BH	s.t.

2019 Clásica de San Sebastián race profile:

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Start list with back numbers, August 2, 2019:

	DECEUNINCK-QUICK STEP
1	ALAPHILIPPE Julian
2	CAPECCHI Eros
3	DECLERCQ Tim
4	DEVENYNS Dries
5	EVENEPOEL Remco
6	HONORÉ Mikkel
7	MAS NICOLAU Enric
	AG2R LA MONDIALE
11	GALLOPIN Tony
12	BIDARD François
13	PARET-PEINTRE Aurélien
14	DUPONT Hubert
15	HÄNNINEN Jaakko
16	PETERS Nans
17	WARBASSE Larry
	ASTANA
21	IZAGUIRRE Gorka
22	BILBAO Pello
23	BALLERINI Davide
24	FRAILE Omar
25	GREGAARD WILSLY Jonas
26	BIZHIGITOV Zhandos
27	VILLELLA Davide
	BORA-HANSGROHE
31	KONRAD Patrick
32	GATTO Oscar
33	GROßSCHARTNER Felix
34	MCCARTHY Jay
35	MÜHLBERGER Gregor
36	PFINGSTEN Christoph
37	OSS Daniel
	CCC TEAM
41	VAN AVERMAET Greg
42	BARTA William
43	CERNY Josef
44	DE LA PARTE Victor
45	ROSSKOPF Joey
46	BEVIN Patrick
47	ZOIDL Riccardo
	EF EDUCATION FIRST
51	CLARKE Simon
52	CAICEDO Jonathan
53	CARTHY Hugh
54	DOMBROWSKI Joseph
55	HOWES Alex
56	WHELAN James
57	WOODS Michael
	GROUPAMA-FDJ
61	MOLARD Rudy
62	GAUDU David
63	GENIETS Kevin
64	LUDVIGSSON Tobias
65	MADOUAS Valentin
66	SCOTSON Miles
67	ROUX Anthony
	TEAM INEOS
71	BERNAL Egan
72	CASTROVIEJO Jonathan
73	DUNBAR Eddie
74	ELISSONDE Kenny
75	POELS Wouter
76	DE LA CRUZ David
77	SOSA Ivan
	LOTTO SOUDAL
81	WELLENS Tim
82	BENOOT Tiesj
83	KEUKELEIRE Jens
84	MERTZ Rémy
85	MONFORT Maxime
86	VAN DER SANDE Tosh
87	VANENDERT Jelle
	MOVISTAR
91	LANDA Mikel
92	AMADOR Andrey
93	ARCAS Jorge
94	PEDRERO Antonio
95	CARRETERO Hector
96	VALVERDE Alejandro
97	VERONA Carlos
	MITCHELTON-SCOTT
101	YATES Adam
102	BOOKWALTER Brent
103	DURBRIDGE Luke
104	SMITH Dion
105	SCOTSON Callum
106	HAMILTON Lucas
107	YATES Simon
	TEAM SUNWEB
111	ROCHE Nicholas
112	FROHLINGER Johannes
113	BAKELANTS Jan
114	HIRSCHI Marc
115	HAGA Chad
116	STORK Florian
117	VERVAEKE Louis
	BAHRAIN-MERIDA
121	GARCIA Ivan
122	AGNOLI Valerio
123	BOLE Grega
124	WANG Mei Yin
125	GAROSIO Andrea
126	NIBALI Antonio
127	PADUN Mark
	DIMENSION DATA
131	KREUZIGER Roman
132	DLAMINI Nicholas
133	GHEBREIGZABHIER Amanuel
134	VAN RENSBURG Jacques
135	DAVIES Scott
136	MEINTJES Louis
137	WYSS Danilo
	TREK-SEGAFREDO
141	MOLLEMA Bauke
142	BERNARD Julien
143	CICCONE Giulio
144	EG Niklas
145	FELLINE Fabio
146	IRIZAR Markel
147	SKUJINS Toms
	JUMBO-VISMA
152	BOUWMAN Koen
153	DE PLUS Laurens
154	DE TIER Floris
155	KUSS Sepp
156	LINDEMAN Bertjan
157	MARTENS Paul
	KATUSHA-ALPECIN
161	ZAKARIN Ilnur
162	GONCALVES Jose
163	GUERREIRO Ruben
164	CRAS Steff
165	KUZNETSOV Vyacheslav
166	SMIT Willie
	UAE-TEAM EMIRATES
171	MARTIN Daniel
172	FARIA Rui
173	MOLANO Juan
174	POGACAR Tadej
175	POLANC Jan
176	RIABUSHENKO Aliaksandr
177	SUTHERLAND Rory
	BURGOS-BH
181	MADRAZO Ángel
182	BOL Jetse
183	CUBERO Jorge
184	EZQUERRA Jesús
185	NEVES José
186	RUBIO Diego
187	SESSLER Nicolas
	CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA
191	ARANBURU Alex
192	CHERNETSKY Sergey
193	IRISARRI Jon
194	LASTRA Jonathan
195	NICOLAU Joel
196	RODRÍGUEZ Cristian
197	SERRANO Gonzalo
	COFIDIS
201	ROSSETTO Stéphane
202	PERICHON Pierre-Luc
203	SOUPE Geoffrey
204	TOUZÉ Damien
205	LEMOINE Cyril
206	PEREZ Anthony
207	SIMON Julien
	EUSKADI BASQUE COUNTRY-MURIAS
211	RODRIGUEZ Óscar
212	BAGUES Aritz
213	BARCELÓ Fernando
214	BARTHE Cyril
215	BARRENETXEA Ander
216	BRAVO Garikoitz
217	ITURRIA Mikel