Roman Kreuziger will spearhead Tinkoff-Saxo into action at the World Tour Clásica San Sebastián, where the team aims for one of the top spots. Despite an intense race program, Kreuziger will seek to benefit from his Tour shape, while several fresh riders seek to provide backing on the challenging parcours.
 
Tinkoff-Saxo sends Roman Kreuizger, Matteo Tosatto, Manuele Boaro, Jesus Hernandez, Sergio Paulinho, Pavel Brutt, Oliver Zaugg and Chris Juul-Jensen into action in the biggest one-day race of the Basque Country.
 
According to team sports director Patxi Vila, the race strategy of the squad has been significantly changed since Alberto Contador, who was originally set to start the race, had to opt out due to illness.
 
“Obviously, the team's main objective was for Alberto Contador to win the race and his absence will significantly change the goals and strategy of the team. Alberto still has high fever and is unable to race. He also renounces the criteriums he was scheduled to attend and as a result, his 2015 racing season has come to an end”, comments Patxi Vila, who continues about the motivated squad going into action.
 
“We have two riders, Kreuziger and Tosatto, who come from the Giro-Tour double. A few come fresh from home and a rider like Boaro comes from the high-altitude training camp in Livigno, while Brutt and Juul-Jensen will join directly from the Tour de Wallonie, where they have delivered a strong performance on a hard parcours. As a result, we have various levels of freshness and abilities on the squad that we will seek to utilize in the best way possible to achieve a top result”.

Clásica San Sebastián challenges the riders with 219km in winding, undulating terrain, which traditionally has favored the aggressive moves in the race finale.
 
“The race has a altitude gain of 2,613m. It isn't an extremely hard race but still, it is a long and tough one and can be hectic at times with a nervous bunch. The race course suits Roman the most and he will be our leader for San Sebastián. He comes from a very busy season and although, ideally, we will aim for the overall win, at least we will try to be in the top spots”,
 
The 219km parcours consists of three distinctive phases. The first, a 100km long section that starts in San Sebastián and passes through most of the Gipuzkoa province before the race enters a circuit of approximately 40km. Here, the race will tackle the iconic first category climbs of Jaizkibel and Arkale that have featured in the Basque race since its inception in 1981.
 
“The third and final part of the race is most probably the decisive one. It contains the climb of Bordako Tontorra just 7km from the finish, and although it isn't a long one, only approximately 3 kilometers, it has an average gradient of 9 percent with segments of 22 percent. The race was decided here last year and this could likely be repeated this year as well. We enter this race with a motivated squad, we realize that the competition is tough and that the outcome is not easy to control in a terrain like this but we seek to create a good result for the team”, finishes Patxi Vila.