In his first WorldTour race since finishing 14th in his debut Tour de France, Warren Barguil has raced to an impressive ninth place at the one-day classic, Clásica Ciclista San Sebastián in Spain.

Barguil was part of a select lead group that formed on the steep slopes of the final climb of the day, from which Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEDGE) attacked for a solo victory. Barguil tried his luck with a strong solo move within the final 10km but was brought back as Yates pulled clear.

Eight riders formed the day’s main breakaway, moving clear in the early stages of the 219km race, and with no rider from Team Giant-Alpecin in front efforts were saved to protect Barguil and get him into the best possible position for the key climbs identified ahead of the race.

The breakaway’s advantage never quite reached five minutes and despite riders bridging across they were brought back by a thinning chasing bunch as climb after climb the peloton was whittled down.

Barguil remained in a great position as the steep final climb of Bordako Tontorra kicked up ahead, but despite his efforts he wasn’t able to move clear ahead of the fast descent down to the finish. He came across the line in the chase group racing for second place, 15 seconds behind lone winner Yates.

“It was a good result for Warren today, and all he team worked well together to help him throughout the race,” explained coach Christian Guiberteau after the finish. “We made a plan to have Chad (Haga) and Tobias (Ludvigsson) with Warren as long as possible in the final. Tobias especially did a great job, surviving the last climb and staying with Warren.”

“Warren was the whole day in a good position and anticipated the situation well at the right moments as to not waste energy. At the end he sprinted to ninth against very strong opposition and we can be happy with the result.”