Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa 2025

San Sebastian is an odd race in that many on the start list will have ridden the Tour de France that finished a week ago. Some riders come out of a Grand Tour very strong while some are still on their knees and trying to recover. There is another group of riders who will be eyeing La Vuelta at the end of the month who are trying to get some racing back into their legs. The course is an arduous series of climbs that total 4,000M of elevation over 211KM. The first 133KM contains three categorized climbs on a loop West of San Sebastian. The riders come back along the coast into town for a 62KM loop to the East to take on the 8KM, 5.5% Jaizkibel and the steeper Erlaitz which is 4KM at over 10.5%. The descent leads them back into San Sebastian for a final 17KM loop to climb the Murgil Tontorra, a 2KM ramp at 9.5%. A sharp descent back into San Sebastian will crown the winner with the traditional Basque Txapela. A group of 12 riders were up the road in the break but with 65KM to go and 3KM still to climb on the Jaizkibel, Jordan Labrosse of Decathlon AG2R was leading with Mats Wenzel of Equipo Kern Pharma chasing at 30 seconds. Jayco AlUla had put their move into action with Paul Double pacing Luke Plapp who had attacked from the peloton. They were chasing at 45 seconds and the rest of the peloton was at 1 minute 35 seconds. By the top, Labrosse had 25 seconds on Wenzel and Plapp who had left Double and was coming across fast. Plapp and Wenzel caught Labrosse with 52KM to go on the flat road heading to Irun and the Erlaitz climb with the Groupama-FDJ led peloton charging behind at 1 minute 10 seconds. Plapp led the break on to Erlaitz with 46.5KM to go and the peloton arrived just 45 seconds later. Plapp was quickly alone at the front as Primož Roglič of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe set a very hard pace for the first half of the climb in the peloton. A group went clear from the bunch containing Jan Christen of UAE-XRG, Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek and Maxim Van Gils of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe and they caught Plapp 1.3KM from the top of Erlaitz. Isaac del Toro of UAE-XRG bridged up as did Roglič but near the top, Christen left a gap to del Toro and Ciccone that Roglič and Van Gils couldn't close which left Ciccone and del Toro at the front over the top with 42.5KM to go. There was no immediate descent off of Erlaitz and while Ciccone and del Toro were working to extend their lead, groups were consolidating behind and, with 40KM to go, a nine man chase formed. in the group was Christen, Roglič, Van Gils, Plapp, Léo Bisiaux of Decathlon AG2R, Neilson Powless of EF-Education EasyPost, Tiesj Benoot and Cian Uijtdebroeks of Visma-Lease a Bike, and Christian Scaroni of XDS-Astana. When the descent proper began 2KM later, the chase was 40 seconds down. At the bottom, Ciccone and del Toro had extended out to over 50 seconds and when they went through the finish line along the stunning Zurriola beach to take the bell for one lap and 17KM to go, it felt like the win would come from one of the two leaders. Roglič sacrificed himself for Van Gils and drove the chase group to within 35 seconds at the start of the climb at 10KM to go. Interestingly, Christen decided to attack the chase group and got a gap with Powless chasing behind. Christen made contact quite quickly and immediately went over the top. Del Toro couldn't follow but Ciccone was straight on the wheel. Christen hit it slightly too hard and Ciccone was able to attack and was off alone soaring up through masses of fanatic Basques. He went over the top with 8KM to go, 11 seconds in front of Christen and 25 seconds on del Toro and Powless. Ciccone arrived back in town with his lead in tact and committed through to the line to take the win with a disappointed Christen in the background. Van Gils led the chase in for third with Benoot, del Toro, and Powless finishing in that order.