Ollfardh wrote:


This startlist probably was already out by the time you asked

knockout wrote:


Neo-pro's should show some respect to world champions. That is true.
But only if they are world champions in a REAL sport

knockout wrote:
Should i take this as an offence towards Schröder? He is not as bad as Nys
Second place is good although i also dislike being beaten by such a random attacker.

Shonak wrote:


Well, someone's pleading for a little point punishment there it seems.

Ollfardh wrote:
PS, no need to wait with Clasica or London, the sooner the current races are done, the sooner I'll make the next couple of startlists. I'm trying to catvh up with real life, so hoping to get the Vuelta started soon

Clasica San Sebastian

Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian, as the full name is, is a World Tour race held in Spain, traditionally within a month of Le Tour. It’s quite prestigious, though it can’t be compared to the spring classics.


As the name suggests, it’s held in San Sebastian, a beautiful city which is located in Basque Country, so maybe I shouldn’t call it a Spanish race, but rather a Basque one.
It’s a hilly race with often big names participating. It was held first in 1981, when Spanish Marino Lejarreta(Also Vuelta a España winner) won it for the first time. He managed to win it three times in total. Most of the time a tiny group sprints for the win at the line, though we’ve seen solo wins here, mainly in the last years, too.



Last year we had a big group out of favourites who stayed together. They could only fight for 2nd place though, since Luis Leon Sanchez grabbed a magnificent solo win. LLS attacked at 10km from the finish line and managed to hold off the groups behind on his own.
7 seconds later, Simon Gerrans outsprinted Gianni Meersman for 2nd place.

Here you can see the action of the 2012 edition yourself:





Here’s the profile of this year’s edition. As always, San Sebastian is hilly. Stamina will come into play in this race, as its 231 km long, which is quite a distance.
It has tons of bumps, some longer than others. The most notable hill is the Alto de Jaitzkabel, which is the tall hill which has to be climbed twice. It’s a 8,7km climb with an average gradient of 5,9%. It doesn’t have crazy percentages, it only goes up to 9%, but it should be enough to affect the race. Bumps will remain until the finish, with a few small hills only a handful of kilometres away from the finish line. This could be enough for some of the strong punchers to make a move.
But who knows, maybe some of the punchy sprinters can hang on.






Looking at the startlist, we have quite some stars right here, despite a clash with Pologne. Spanish superstar Joaquim Rodriguez is here, arguably the best puncher of the world right now. Also here is counterpart Alejandro Valverde, from Movistar. We also have current World Champion Phillipe Gilbert here, which is very nice.
Some other interesting names are Vincenzo Nibali(Astana), Peter Sagan(Cannondale), Simon Gerrans(Orica) and Rajesh Kakhi(Champion System).
A lot of the favourites have taken strong domestiques(or riders with a free role) with them too. Valverde has Quintana with him, Rodriguez has Spilak with him and Nibali has Gasparotto with him. One can argue this applies for BMC too, with Cadel Evans being ready for 11th and Tejay being here as well.
Other notable mentiones are the Euskaltel squad, with a lot of depth. After all, this is a home race for them, being a Basque team in a Basque race.
Obviously, Luis Leon Sanchez should be mentioned too. I’m expecting a late attack from him, surely he’d want to defend his win of last year.

Beside the pure punchers, there are some punchy sprinters as well, who might actually be able to hang on if it gets to a reduced sprint. Sagan is an obvious example for this, but there are guys like Riquelme(Belkin), Boasson Hagen(Sky), Meersman(OPQS) and Verboven(Euskaltel) as well.



J. Rodriguez(KAT)
A. Valverde(MOV)


P. Gilbert(BMC)
P. Sagan(CAN)



V. Nibali(CAN)
S. Gerrans(OGE)
E. Gasparotto(AST)


R. Kakhi(CHA)
E. Boasson Hagen(SKY)
R. Verboven(EUS)

Ollfardh wrote:
PS, no need to wait with Clasica or London, the sooner the current races are done, the sooner I'll make the next couple of startlists. I'm trying to catvh up with real life, so hoping to get the Vuelta started soon

Clasica San Sebastian - Race

The Race
Here we are, for Clasica San Sebastian. 231 km of going up and down awaits the riders.
226km -
Verona(OPQS) and Roy(FDJ) are the first attackers of the day!
223km -
Ruijgh(VAC), Beyer(CSS) and Ferrari(LAM) are the next to attack. The peloton lets them go freely.
216km -
After Keukeleire(OGE) and Daniel(SOJ) attacked, these 7 will clearly make todays break, having got more than 3 mins
150km -
The gap is 9 minutes and this seems the furthest the peloton wants to let them go.
98km -
With roughly 100km to go, the breakaway reached the tough hills. The gap is only around 6 minutes, which means the peloton has it under control.
80km -
The peloton is now downhilling the Alto de Jaitzkabel for the first time, the gap is 4’50. BMC and Astana are doing most of the relay work, which is interesting to see.
55km -
The escapees are climbing the Jaitzkabel for the 2nd time now, and the gap is reduced to 3’20. Not a lot of action is happening in the peloton yet, only a group of domestiques has dropped. Astana and Katusha are setting a strong pace on the hill though.
48km -
Nearing the end of the hill, due to the pace of mainly Spilak(KAT), a huge group dropped from the peloton, only 78 riders are left now. No top favourites missed out, but there are a few notable names missing out.
Those are Stybar(OPQ), S.Sanchez(EUS), M.Matthews(OPQ), Flecha(VAC), Pozzato(LAM), Vichot(FDJ), Mcdermott(TST) and the sprinters who have troubles with the hills. The gap to the escapees has dropped to a stunning 1’30 now!
43km -
Most of the dropped riders have returned in the downhill. It is however a good way to find out which riders don’t feel too well, I doubt these riders will do much today.
35km -
The pace had dropped a bit, but now, tons of riders attack. Anton(EUS) is the first to attack, and most of the favourites are trying to jump in his wheel. Quintana(MOV), Gerrans(OGE), Vanendert(LTB), Valverde(MOV), Riquelme(BEL), Rodriguez(KAT), Gilbert(BMC), Nibali(AST), Sagan(CAN) and Kakhi(CSS) are all part of the favourites group, while Boasson Hagen(SKY), Zubeldia(RNT), LL Sanchez(BEL), Pinot and Fedrigo(FDJ) are trying to join as well. Most teams have a rider in the attack now, which is why the pace in the peloton dropped, with teams counting on each other.
32km -
A group of Froome(SKY), Gasparotto(AST), Van Avermaet(BMC), Spilak(KAT) and Visconti(MOV) is trying to bridge the gap to the favourite group, which is nearly a minute.
The early break is still alive, having got 1’45 on the group of favourites.
27km -
The group of favourites isn’t cooperating very well. Anton is one of the many guys who try an attack. They’ll get countered and reeled in eventually anyway. Froome’s group is nearly 2 mins behind this group, which means that it’ll likely be this group who will fight for the win.
24km -
As expected, the breakaway didn’t last, the favourites reached them. Quintana uses the opportunity to get a gap on the hill! Nibali, Gilbert and Sagan jump away from the peloton as well.
20km -
Right under the 20km banner, Gilbert and Sagan manage to reach Quintana. Half a minute behind, it’s Purito trying another attack, while Riquelme, Anton and Nibali try to follow.
The 8 others, including Valverde, are another 30 seconds behind, so 1 minute away from the leaders.
Most bumps are over now, only small ones are left.
17km -
Sagan and Gilbert continue their attacks and manage to drop Quintana. Both of the leaders are strong on the flat, which can make it tricky for the rest to ever reach them. Rodriguez has nearly reached Quintana as well, and Riquelme, Anton and Nibali are still in a good position right behind that.
14km -
With only 14km to go, it seems that these 7 riders will battle for the win today. Rodriguez led Quintana back to the front group, so now they’re with 4. The 3 riders in the back are still the same, and behind the trio, there’s a gap of 1 minute. Even the old breakaway guys have succeeded to hang on to that group for now. They might join the fight for 8th, unless something happens in the final stage of the race. FDJ and OGE have multiple guys in that big group, so they’re finally trying to set up an organised relay.
11km -
Gilbert accelerates once more, and only Sagan seems fresh enough to properly follow. The gap to group Nibali is ’35, while the big group of 16 is 1’10 away from the leaders now.
9km -
Sagan and Gilbert managed to get a comfortable gap and they might battle it out in the end. The group of 16 got unorganised as well, and Valverde attacked with Hagen and Vanendert. Gerrans is chasing them. The trio is now hunting for the group with Nibali, Anton and Riquelme.
7km -
The front still has 18 seconds on Quintana and Purito. In the back though, the attack involving Valverde failed and they’re trying to set up a new one. Valverde, Hagen and Vanendert are now joined by Pinot and Gerrans, and they have a serious chance to get to the Nibali group.
5km -
With 5km to the line, the group of Nibali is caught and this is the current situation:
E1: Sagan, Nibali
E2: Quintana, Rodriguez(0’14)
E3: Nibali, Riquelme, Anton, Hagen, Gerrans, Pinot, Valverde, Vanendert(0’55)
E4: Kakhi, LLS(1’05)
E5: Zubeldia, Fedrigo(1’40)

3500m -
With only 3,5km to go, it really seems that Quintana and Rodriguez won’t reach the leader’s duo, despite the small gap. In the back, it looks like the rest, now including Kakhi and LLS, will be sprinting for 5th.
1800m -
Sagan goes for a solo and Gilbert can’t follow! Rodriguez and Quintana, both lightweights, have collapsed and might even be caught in the sprint.
1100m -
With the finish in sight, Gilbert almost manages to grab Sagan, who might have went too early.
700m -
Gilbert can’t quite pass Sagan, it seems!
400m -
This looks like something for Sagan!

Finish -
Sagan does it! Great victory for him!! Gilbert didn’t have enough left to pass him.


Meanwhile, in the fight for third, it’s LLS(left) and Valverde(right) who are doing well. Quintana and Purito have some energy left too, it seems. Behind them, Riquelme(right) and Anton(center-right) seem to have some speed left.

With 600m to go for the sprinters, it indeed looks like Valverde will take the podium spot. Purito has some speed left as well, but most of the others collapsed, it has been a tough day.

Aaaand… Purito actually pips out Valverde on the line right there. A 3rd place for the Katusha rider. Valv obviously takes 4th, and Luis Leon Sanchez uses his last energy to grab 5th. Quintana, Riquelme, Gerrans, Kakhi and Boasson Hagen fill up the Top 10.

The early breakaway leaves with nothing in the end, Daniel and Beyer just miss out on the Top 20.
FDJ easily takes the team classification, with 3 riders within 4 minutes.


Results:

1	Peter Sagan	Cannondale Pro Cycling	5h49'47
2	Philippe Gilbert	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
3	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	+ 1'06
4	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	s.t.
5	Luis León Sánchez	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
6	Jorge Cristobal Riquelme	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
7	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	s.t.
8	Simon Gerrans	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
9	Rajesh Kakhi	Champion System Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
10	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Sky Procycling	s.t.

Team:
1. FDJ
2. Movistar
3. Belkin

GC

Points

KoM