The 219.2 kilometers in an around Donostia in Basque Country on the North coast of Spain are lumpy and bumpy and 6 categorized climbs were to be ascended during the summer classic, Clasica San Sebastian.  The race has been on the calendar since 1981 and only Marino Lejarreta has won the mountainous race three times while in recent time, Laurent Jalabert and Luis-Leon Sanchez have both won it twice.

Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural) was fighting alone in front of the peloton for along time while the Movistar squad was controlling the pace of the chase. But with 60 kilometers remaining, it was all over for the Caja Rural-rider. In the counter-move, seven riders from seven different teams managed to create a significant gap and a few big teams missed out on the break including the Tinkoff-Saxo riders. But it was Orica-GreenEdge and Trek Factory Racing who brought the escapees back going in on the penultimate climb of the day.

Here, Tinkoff-Saxo’s Ivan Rovny launched an attack and crested the summit first dragging along a long line of riders but it was Andriy Grivko (Astana) who created the gap and was soloing in front of the pack where Movistar were pack in the engine room of the peloton. Apparently, Katusha were unhappy with the pace, picked it up and reeled in Grivko.

Entering the final slope, Alexander Kolobnev (Katusha) opened up a gap but on the steepest part of the climb, Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) bridged with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) on his tail while Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge), Bauke Mollema (Belkin) and Mikel Nieve (Sky) were chasing behind.

As Yates had a very unfortunate crash on the descent, Valverde pulled very hard rocketing through the corners and worked up a lead to his three followers, which was enough to solo his way to his second win of the race. Mollema finished second and Rodriguez third. Valverde won the race in 2008 as well.

Unfortunately, Tinkoff-Saxo missed out on the finale:

“As usual, it was a very demanding race over 200 kilometers in mountainous terrain and we knew we were going to watch out for Rodriguez and Valverde on that final steep part of the climb. But we simply weren’t strong enough to execute the plan and we had to settle for minor positions today. I had hoped that either Michael (Rogers) or Nico would have delivered but that’s how cycling is at times. You gotta have the legs for it,” says DS, Philippe Mauduit.