The young Belgian star Remco Evenepoel has won the difficult cycling classic in San Sebastian for the second time and once again had a strong solo ride.
The 22-year-old clinched victory in the Basque Country after 224.8 kilometers with a lead of around two minutes over Pavel Sivakov, who meanwhile started for France. Evenepoel, who did not compete in the Tour de France, had already won the spring classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège in a similar manner in April.
The German classics specialist Maximilian Schachmann had to be demolished early on and played no role in the decision. The Slovenian Tour de France runner-up Tadej Pogacar and almost mountain king Simon Geschke were also not strong enough.
“It was a perfect race. This is my favorite race next to Liège. I can now go to the Vuelta with a lot of confidence,” said Evenepoel, who broke away from British escapee Simon Yates with 44 kilometers to go and then his second victory in San Sebastian Imported confidently in 2019. It was the eleventh win of the season for the youngster.