We're looking at a long, partly cloudy day here in the Basque Country. Profile is hard as always, but maybe not quite as hard as last year. The selectivity will be what the top teams and riders make it.
After some stopping and starting, 5 riders establish a front group:
Godoy Koshevoy Pszczolarski Goncalves Larsen
The first two are the strongest in an uphill if they somehow manage to survive.
Martinez and Fedeli attack too, but they can't make on their own and are absorbed back.
We have a diverse list of favorites here, and so a diverse set of teams have placed riders in the paceline. Gap is up around 4'30'' with 160 km to go and has stabilized.
We see Moser and EA Vesuvio upping the pace a bit with 95 to go. They've pulled the break back to 3 minutes, and this is bound to start pressuring the weaker puncheurs at the back since the climbing has begun in earnest.
Not too much craziness over the top of the first longer climb. Vogt is the first significant casualty at 87 km to go, which makes sense given how much he hates the mountains.
Up front, Koshevoy gives a little dig at the bottom of the descent. He gets about 20 seconds, but it's hard to tell how serious of a move this is from so far out.
Not too serious. He's caught by his companions again about 15 km later after just dangling there for a while. With the gap already below 2 minutes, it probably won't matter too much.
Over the next hill, and while the climb itself was tame, the pace and some strange positioning has led to gaps over the top! Here's where the favorites stand.
The first group contains: De Bie Hagen Sagan Kinoshita Mohoric Van Garderen Bakelants Yates Turgis Ulissi
Then there's a gap to: Skujins Kwiatkowski Gastauer Formolo Vakoc Prevar
And still another small gap to the group with: Chaves Waeytens Claeys De Plus Paulinho
Luckily for all those guys, the pace at the front slows down and all 3 groups come back together, though with the extra fat of many pure domestiques having been trimmed in the process.
55 km to go now as we're on the second passing of that long climb. The breakaway only has 40 seconds and they're now spread across the road with very little cohesion.
Larsen is the first to pop as Moser ups the tempo again.
We have another split that looks to be the grupetto for the day. Paulinho and Waeytens are present and almost certainly done for the day.
Surprisingly Godoy pops from the front next, although the break as a whole is on its last legs.
And the peloton is officially the front of the race,, but it's a much smaller peloton than before. Claeys, De Plus, Arndt, Prevar, Chaves, and Bystrom have been tailed off.
I lost a couple of screens here and my race replay keeps crashing, massive apologies to those managers.
Even smaller still now as Gastauer will not have a triumphant swansong here. He is tailed off alongside Adam Yates.
But hold on, don't quite count those behind out yet. Chaves has found a second wind and is pushing really hard, basically towing everyone else that has been dropped along with him. He must have just been caught out of position before because he looks very strong. Unfortunately, he's almost two minutes down at the top and still chasing.
So, 26 riders remain in the front group:
De Bie, Carboni Mohoric, Peters, Polanc Sagan, Hosek S. Yates, Wackermann Hagen Turgis, Guerreiro, Bettiol Ulissi Van Garderen Bakelants Sepulveda Skujins Kinoshita Boily, Barta Kwiatkowski Formolo, Kangert Koretzky Chernetskiy
Pace is pretty slow though...
Hold on, what? Is that Chaves? Yes, it is! He leads a small group of mostly domestiques and reaches the back of the peloton again. What an effort!
Uhh...well that's a shame. The Colombian made it into the slipstream for literally 500 meters before the pace rose a bit and he cracked. The exact same guys fall off the back again. It was indeed a phenomenal effort to cross the gap, but way too much energy in the end.
26 km to go, we reach our last major hill, and there's an attack. Surprisingly, it's Yates! He should be the guy in this group most hoping for a sprint, but apparently he doesn't see it that way.
Hagen easily shuts it down, not sure what that was about, but it has stretched out the group for sure.
Van Garderen counters as they reach the top, with Kwiatkowski on his wheel!
They've got about 20 seconds over the top, nobody important has been dropped behind.
Neither guy really committed, and Polanc shuts them down with 19 km left.
And, the pace has knocked off again. A couple of the weakest domestiques are off the back now, but all the remaining leaders are still sitting calmly. There area couple of bumps left still, but nothing major before the finish.
Attack at the 15 km marker! It's Chernetskiy trying to pull an upset. He has no sprint, so this may be his only shot.
As they climb the final 10% gradient, Sagan finally makes his move to capitalize on his team's early work!
He's still leading and accelerating through the descent, but so far he's gotten no separation. The only effect was catching Chernetskiy.
Wait, actually there are gaps opening at the back of the group! Mohoric, Koretzky, Kwiatkowski, and Formolo have been caught out with the domestiques!
As they scramble to get back in touch with 8 km to go, there's another attack. It's Turgis, followed again by an antsy Simon Yates!
Nobody else latches onto the move. Sagan is pacing but seems hesitant to close down the move alone.
Meanwhile, Isostar and Gazelle have put everything into closing down the gap that their leaders let go. Kwiatkowski is stuck in no man's land chasing on his own.
The gap to the leaders is growing. Now over 30 seconds as we near the final 5 km. Could the two outsiders make it all the way?
The pack at least is getting some more firepower again from behind, as crisis is averted for all the leaders that previously fell behind.
But no one is willing to commit to the relay! De Bie hits the front but immediately sits up with 3.7 kilometers left. The time to act is now or the race is slipping up the road!
Our leading duo now have about 45 seconds with 2 kilometers left to ride. Unless they crack hard, this should be between them.
As our leaders hit the banner, Kangert is doing everything he can, but it's still over half a minute. The others position themselves behind for the sprint.
Meanwhile, Yates is now refusing to come around, leaving Turgis to lead them into the final gentle incline to the finish (though it probably doesn't feel so gentle after 231 km).
500 meters to go, and Yates launches! Does he have enough left in the tank to come around?
Sagan opens in up behind. There's no organization at this point. Of the top favorites, Skujins is the farthest back and really needs to have a good sprint to not lose out to his rivals.
There's that kick we were anticipating. Yates takes the lead. Turgis isn't empty, the Brit is just faster.
Hagen, De Bie, Ulissi, and Sagan are sprinting at the front. The others are scrambling to make up ground, but this is for 3rd place.
One last dig from the Frenchman, but there's not enough road left.
Simon Yates wins Clasica San Sebastian! With a 20+ rider group behind, he had every opportunity to wait for an advantageous sprint, but in the end he felt aggression was the better choice. No one could argue he was right! Great win for Desigual.
Turgis finished a very, very good 2nd, which is not a win, but should be well above his manager's expectations. Great performance and a very smart attack at the perfect time.
The sprint is bunched up behind. Nobody is coming through much faster than those already at the front. Only Sagan is fading a bit after his leadout.
Hagen just barely manages to edge out De Bie for the final podium spot, and the Belgian settles for 4th. Neither team will be completely happy without the win, but at least the best puncheurs get high places.
Not sure if it's the season altering performance his manager predicted, but Ulissi should be very happy to punch above his weight and finish 5th here. His sprint helps him in the end.
Bakelants comes through on the left to overtake Sagan for 6th. The former was pretty anonymous today, but at least gets a result. The latter worked and attacked, so he will be disappointed with 7th.
Very close photo finish for the rest of the top 10. Sepulveda manages to get 8th, and that's very good for him. Mohoric and Koretzky complete the top 10. 9th is not Mohoric's dream for sure, but he's 10 places higher than he could have been thanks to the work of his domestiques. With him and their depth scoring, they will easily outscore Evonik and Puma here.
Van Garderen in 11th is not a good result for a very strong Vesuvio lineup. Contrarily, Guerreiro in 12th is another supplement to Farfetch's amazing day. Kinoshita behind most of the 1st tier puncheurs in 13th, disappointing race for him. Kwiatkowski also not living up to previous years in 14th, but he's lucky to be in this group after being dropped twice and attacking unsuccessfully. Boily then for Festina.
Skujins can't make up any ground and finishes behind Bettiol in 17th. Absolutely abysmal day for Evonik in the title hunt. Just an unacceptable performance by their home nation star.
Then Formolo, the domestiques, and Chernetskiy, who gave it his all, but was right to not want to be in a group sprint.
