San Sebastian Klasikoa 2023

Held in the cycling-mad Basque Country, this one-day race is often one of the highlights of the season

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San Sebastian Klasikoa

Dates 29 Jul
Race Length 230 kms
Start Donostia / San Sebastian
Finish Donostia / San Sebastian
Race Category Elite Men

Overview

Beginning in 1981, the Clásica San Sebastián typically falls a week after the Tour de France and often favours those riders who have ridden themselves into form over the mountainous third week. At the same time, it serves as the perfect test for those heading to La Vuelta a España, providing a spectacle for the fans as the best climbers in the world come up against one another.

Eighteen WorldTour teams and seven ProTeams will line up at this year’s Clásica San Sebastián, including Jumbo-Visma, Ineos Grenadiers and UAE Team Emirates. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) will take his place as defending champion but will be challenged by the likes of Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) and Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla).

This one-day race regularly reaches the 230km mark, combine this with a countless number of steep climbs and it’s no wonder many riders regard this race as one of the toughest on the calendar. While the roll call of climbs changes with each edition, the infamous Alto de Jaizkibel remains fixed on the route and often falls within the final third of the race. This is the hardest and longest climb the riders will face all day and it routinely sees some big attacks from the main favourites.

The Murgil Tontorra, while not quite as difficult as the Jaizkibel, is another leg-breaker. This is often the final climb of the day and thus marks the final chance for the pure climbers to skip away from the rest of the pack. Just one long and dicey descent to the seafront lies in between the summit of this final climb and the finish line - risk it all here and you may just crown yourself the champion in San Sebastian.

Riders to watch

Race key

Date: Saturday 29 July 2023

Country: Spain (Basque Country)

Category: WorldTour (1.UWT)

Editions: 42 (as of 2022)

First winner: Marino Lejarreta

Most recent winner: Remco Evenepoel

Route

San Sebastián → San Sebastián (229.8km)

2023 Clásica San Sebastián route profile

Contenders

Of those heading straight from France to the Basque Country, the pre-race favourites will surely be Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), winner of this race in 2021 and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), winner of stage 10 at the Tour de France.

Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich) and Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), meanwhile, will be hoping to bounce back from their Tour de France abandons, whilst Victor Lafay (Cofidis) is a man who knows what it takes to win in this region having emerged victorious on stage 2 of the Tour’s Grand Départ from the Basque Country.

Remco Evenepoel is living proof that fresh legs can prove the difference at Clásica San Sebastián, giving hope to the likes of Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), a man with his eyes set on La Vuelta a España, Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla), whose fine climbing legs were rediscovered at the Giro d’Italia, and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), the breakthrough rider of the hilly Spring Classics.

That is not to forget Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), winner of the Tour de France’s polka-dot jersey, Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma), third-place at last year’s race, and Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech, the conquerer of the Puy de Dôme just three weeks ago.

Teams

AG2R Citroën
Alpecin-Deceuninck
Arkéa Samsic
Astana Qazaqstan
Bahrain Victorious
Bora-Hansgrohe
Cofidis
dsm-firmenich
EF Education-EasyPost
Groupama-FDJ
Ineos Grenadiers
Intermarché-Circus-Wanty
Jayco AlUla
Jumbo-Visma
Lidl-Trek
Movistar
Soudal-Quick Step
UAE Team Emirates
Burgos-BH (PRT)
Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
Equipo Kern Pharma
Euskaltel-Euskadi
Israel-Premier Tech
Lotto Dstny
TotalEnergies

Race history

Since its inaugural edition in 1981, this race has been dominated by Spanish riders, with the home nation taking a record-breaking 13 wins from 42 editions. The Basque-born rider, Marino Lejarreta, holds the record for the most number of wins in this race with three - a tally that would be matched should Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) retain his title this year. Lejarreta also won the first edition of this race, back in 1981, before going on to win a stage in all three Grand Tours.

Over the last few years, the race has seen several new nations take a maiden victory: Great Britain with Adam Yates in 2015 and Poland with Michał Kwiatkowski in 2017. It was the 2019 edition that was perhaps the most memorable of the last decade however, with the young phenom, Remco Evenepoel, taking the first WorldTour win of his fledgling career in spectacular solo fashion.

He became the youngest rider to ever win this race, at 19 years old, and won by the largest margin (38”) since Francesco Casagrande in 1999 (43”). The Belgian would surpass this in 2022 and held a whopping 1:58 advantage over second-placed Pavel Sivakov.