Clásica San Sebastián: Remco Evenepoel scores a hattrick in the Basque Country

It was the perfect chance for Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick Step) 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.

While it was less emphatic than last year's demonstration, Evenepoel was still clearly the strongest rider on the day. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) put up a great fight on his home roads, but he couldn’t beat the Belgian in the sprint for what would have been his biggest win to date.

Nevertheless, it was all about Evenepoel as he prepares to defend both his Vuelta a España crown and his rainbow jersey.

“I really love this race, the fans are amazing,” Evenepoel said after the finish. “I will say today they were screaming a bit more for Pello than for me. But I understand he's a Basque rider. It was super nice to race the final with him.”

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 at San Sebastián, however, Evenepoel was joined by other strong riders to make his attack slightly less audacious. Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost), Pello Bilbao and Aleksandr 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.

The group rode well together up until the final climbs, with Evenepoel turning the screws on the final climbs of the race, dropping all but one of his breakaway companions while extending the lead ahead of a faltering peloton. 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.

“It was a perfect group, we rode super well together,” Evenepoel said of how the race played out. “I took a super hard rhythm on the Murgil, which I thought I could keep until the top. I saw the last time only Pello was with me and I knew he was fast.”

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.

“Actually, I was a bit surprised with my sprint because Pello is one of the fastest climbers in the bunch,” he said.

Vlasov came across the line in third, while Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) shot off the front of the peloton to finish fourth ahead of the diminished bunch just shy of three minutes behind the winner.