The tactics from Movistar Team in the 33rd editino of the Clásica San Sebastián, the only Spanish WorldTour one-day race, came one step short for home crowd favourites Movistar with Alejandro Valverde's second place after the demanding, rainy, 232-kilometre course in Gipuzkoa, with five rated climbs.

Tony Gallopin (RadioShack-Leopard) profited from a lack of cooperation among his pursuers launch an attack and solo to victory.

Valverde, joined by Roche and Kreuziger (TST) as well as Landa and Nieve (EUS), started an unsuccessful pursuit against the Frenchman in the final run into San Sebastián, having to content himself with 2nd place to fulfil an excellent job from the riders directed by José Luis Arrieta, after Madrazo's 2nd spot on Thursday in Ordizia, the first stop of a big week in Basque cycling that will conclude at the Circuito de Getxo on Wednesday.

Valverde was content with the outcome of the day since he hadn’t trained too much during the week, and he chose to look ahead to the Vuelta a España.

“We have to be happy with this result, because we did the best we could to win, that goes for myself as for the rest of the team,” Valverde explained. “We knew we were the favourites - though it's even more difficult to show it when everyone is looking at you - and took charge of the pace in the bunch from the beginning. My teammates were phenomenal today. The strategy was making the race hard with Nairo [Quintana] on the second Jaizkibel climb to split the group and make it easy to control, and we succeeded. Kreuziger attacked on the final slopes, and even though I waited a bit to see how he went, I had to move with 1km remaining because he was too dangerous. I caught him on the downhill, but after that, it was impossible to go after every single wheel, and Gallopin was gone. I was hopeful we could chase him down, because we were getting closer and closer and even saw him on the final small climb in the city, but it was impossible. I was there with two Euskaltel riders and two Saxo riders and couldn't simply push more than them and burning myself. Now it's time to take some days of rest, but not too much - I didn't really train hard this week. It's time to think about the Vuelta."