Watch: Clásica San Sebastián highlights

It was the perfect chance for Remco Evenepoel to have one last romp in his white and rainbow jumper and the Belgian did not disappoint. Evenepoel, for the second consecutive season, stormed to victory at the Clásica San Sebastián.

Evenepoel made his move over the top of the Erlaitz climb with still 73km to race, which was remarkably early even for his outstanding standard of audacious attacks. Unlike his past victories in San Sebastián, however, Evenepoel was joined by other strong riders to make his attack slightly less audacious. Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) and Alexsandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) were able to cling onto a flying Evenepoel during his attack, while Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich) and Nathan van Hooydonck (Jumbo-Visma) held onto those attackers from the early breakaway.

By the top of the final climb of the Murgil, with only a handful of kilometres to go, it was clear that the race was down to a two man sprint to the line. With Bilbao’s pedigree in fast finishes amongst climbers, Evenpoel’s win looked more doubtful than expected. Nevertheless, Bilbao misjudged the final and was marooned on the front into the final sprint which Evenepoel then took full advantage of.