Coverage today comes to you from San Sebastian for 251km of what will hopefully be thrilling racing! The riders will be back here in a few hours time for the finale.
The riders begin their journey and instantly pass through where they will be in another 250km time. It's looking a pretty miserable day out there today.
Plenty of riders trying to join the breakaway today but we'll see how many the Peloton are happy with.
Still more than 200km ahead of the riders but we have a leading group of 14. An additional 8 riders are scattered between them and the Peloton. The first 3 riders catch-up shortly after.
HIL
Preidler
78
Rodriguez Galindo
76
Khederi
76
Helme
74
Cort Nielsen
74
Hamilton
73
Dina
73
Mugisha
70
Shalunov
69
Vinegaard
69
Boutopoulos
69
Elosegui
68
Bissegger
67
Konychev
65
Group 2
Sulvaran
72
Foss
71
Hoehn
70
It then becomes a 21 man leading group. They have a gap of 3'44 to the Peloton with a sole rider stranded in the middle. The latest 4 to join are: Zukowsky Ngandamba Kipkemboi Stancu
Halfway through today's race, which means another 125km remaining, and the gap is down to 2'50 having peaked at 3'30.
The longest climb today is the Alto de Zala and it is benefitting the leading group who have increased their gap to back over 3'30.
A higher tempo, in combination with the steepness of the last climb, has done serious damage to the Peloton which is down to only 55 riders with still 90km to go. There are some big names in the 2nd group!! They include Gidich, Kelderman and Chernetskiy.
80km remaining for the leaders, of which we have only 14 again. Their gap to the charging Peloton is less than 2'16.
It's actually looking fairly promising for our leading group of 9 riders. Their gap back to the "Peloton" is 4'03 with 55km to go. The Peloton having some serious issues with the lack of domestiques, many of which have been dropped due to poor positioning.
Well that's a bit of a surprise! 42km to go and the gap has been shredded down to 2 minutes to the 9 leaders. The team leaders have decided it's time to go for it as Lopez launches an attack!
No conviction in that one though as we have our 26 man Peloton again with 37km to go. Still 2 minutes for the leading 9.
29km to go and the gap still 2 minutes but the Peloton have just started the climb up Monte Igueldo which is the longest of the remaining climbs. De Bie decides it's now or never as he springs the others into action.
We're just about to come through 20km to go and 6 leaders have got away. At the head of the race it's Priedler who is 10 seconds ahead of Cort Nielsen who is only 25 seconds ahead of this group of: Lopez Beltran Mohoric Ponzi De Bie Kwiatkowski
15km now and these 6 are just about to be in the race lead so one of them should be our race winner today. They are doing a good job of marking each other's attacks so far as Ponzi is the latest to try his luck.
But as we say this, Kwiatkowski can't keep up with that latest Ponzi acceleration.
We're on the really steep slopes of the Alto de Murgil as Mohoric is in trouble! Preidler showing his strength though as he stays with the other 4.
5km to the line and still this group of 5. No more uphill today!
2km to go and Beltran leads them down the descent. Who will have the kick and the positioning to take the win here??
Inside the final kilometer and they all begin their individual sprints.
Ponzi in the lead with 400m to go but will he be able to hold on?!
Yes he will! The Italian was the best sprinter of this quartet and he delivers a great win for his team today!
It's very tight for the rest of the podium but De Bie takes 2nd ahead of Lopez who only just pips his countryman Beltran to the final podium spot.
Huge effort in the end from Preidler who is rewarded with 5th which is a great result for the Austrian.
A lonely Mohoric is 6th.
Kwiatkowski is only just 7th ahead of Helme, Cort Nielsen and Shalunov who round out the Top 10 and all benefit from having been in the breakaway.
A pretty unusual race with some truly awful performances and some great breakaway efforts but it's a familiar face on the top step of the podium. Simone Ponzi is no stranger when it comes to winning Classics and he adds another to his long list of Palmares.
Clasica San Sebastian - Race Report 
