Classic San Sebastian

The Clásica de San Sebastián (officially: Clásica Ciclista San Sebastián) is a Spanish cycling classic that takes place in San Sebastián and the surrounding area of the province of Guipúzcoa, on the last Saturday of July or the first or second Saturday of August.

It was created in 1981 and was part of the Cycling World Cup from its creation in 1989 until its disappearance in 2005 when the UCI ProTour emerged. It is currently included in the UCI WorldTour (formerly UCI ProTour) of the world's top-class calendar as a second-category classic behind cycling monuments.

It is organized by Euskadi Cycling Organizations, after the merger of the Basque Bicycle with the Tour of the Basque Country in 2009.

The rider with the most victories is Marino Lejarreta, with three.

Tour

Profile of the 2009 edition where you can identify in the last 75 km by this order the highs, ports or cotas of Irurain, Gaintzurizketa, Jaizquíbel, Gaintzurizketa, Arkale and Miracruz.

It has always started and finished in San Sebastián and the initial and intermediate section has been variable in all its editions, therefore its total mileage has not been the same, although it has almost always been around 230 km. Its maximum difficulty is the Jaizquíbel hilltop (listed as 1st category) located in the first editions about 15 km from the finish line, although with progressive changes it has moved away from the finish line. Thus, in those first editions, the Fuenterrabía slope was climbed until, in order to offer other alternatives, giving opportunity to other types of runners and not favoring climbers so much, it was decided to climb the opposite slope of Pasajes to place said port about 30 km from the arrival.

Views of San Sebastian from the Igueldo (Bordako Tontorra) decisive point since 2014.

Over the years, this change was insufficient to break the big group and they played for the victory in San Sebastián or in the previous levels of Gaintzurizketa and especially Miracruz (3 km from the finish line) since in some editions it had an outcome similar to that of Milan-San Remo (classic especially suitable for sprinters) with groups of more than 50 riders risking victory after various regroupings.

Because a group of 53 runners arrived in 2000 since 2001, after Jaizkibel, the port of Gurutze (classified as 3rd category) was included, replacing the Gaintzurizketa elevation, leaving Jaizquíbel 32 km from the finish line. This change at first did cause a more selected group to arrive. However, after the 2006 edition in which a group of 51 runners arrived, other types of alternatives were sought that were gradually introduced. In 2008 Gurutze was replaced by Gaintzurizketa+Arkale (classified in the 2nd category) placing Jaizkibel 38.5 km from the finish line. Later, in 2010, a circuit was added repeating the hard part of the race twice (Jaizkibel and Gaintzurizketa+ Arkale). Finally, in 2014, another circuit was introduced inside San Sebastián passing twice through the finish line to climb the Igueldo hill -by the slope called Bordako Tontorra- (classified as 2nd category) to 7 km from the finish line, but leaving the last step through Jaizquíbel at 53.9 km from the finish line. This last change has not been exempt from criticism since it can greatly condition the race since it could avoid distant attacks and favor climbers something that was wanted to avoid in the first editions.

In the 2018 edition, the race continues in the surroundings of the province of Guipúzcoa in the Basque Country up to the city of San Sebastián, likewise, the total number of mountain passes remains with 8 passes, of which Jaizquíbel and Arkale are climbed twice with the purpose of causing a strong selection in the race, later the cyclists face the last port of Murgil Tontorra with a length of 1.8 kilometers at 11.3% to then descend and finish on the city of San Sebastian.

Honours of Prizes

Year	Winner	Second	Third
1981	Marino Lejarreta	Graham Jones	Faustino Rupérez
1982	Marino Lejarreta	Jesús Rodríguez Magro	Pedro Delgado
1983	Claude Criquielion	Antonio Coll	Reimund Dietzen
1984	Niki Rüttimann	Reimund Dietzen	Celestino Prieto
1985	Adrie van der Poel	Iñaki Gastón	Juan Fernández Martín
1986	Iñaki Gastón	Marino Lejarreta	Juan Fernández Martín
1987	Marino Lejarreta	Angel Arroyo	Fede Etxabe
1988	Gert-Jan Theunisse	Enrique Aja	Steven Rooks
1989	Gerhard Zadrobilek	Francisco Antequera	Tony Rominger
1990	Miguel Induráin	Laurent Jalabert	Sean Kelly.
1991	Gianni Bugno	Pedro Delgado	Maurizio Fondriest
1992	Raúl Alcalá	Claudio Chiappucci	Eddy Bouwmans
1993	Claudio Chiappucci	Gianni Faresin	Alberto Volpi
1994	Armand de Las Cuevas	Lance Armstrong	Stefano della Santa
1995	Lance Armstrong	Stefano della Santa	Johan Museeuw
1996	Udo Bölts	Stefano Cattai	Massimo Podenzana
1997	Davide Rebellin	Alexandr Gonchenkov	Stefano Colagè
1998	Francesco Casagrande	Axel Merckx	Leonardo Piepoli
1999	Francesco Casagrande	Rik Verbrugghe	Giuliano Figueras
2000	Erik Dekker	Andréi Chmil	Romāns Vainšteins
2001	Laurent Jalabert	Francesco Casagrande	Davide Rebellin
2002	Laurent Jalabert	Igor Astarloa	Gabriele Missaglia
2003	Paolo Bettini	Ivan Basso	Danilo Di Luca
2004	Miguel Ángel Martín Perdiguero	Paolo Bettini	Davide Rebellin
2005	Tino Zaballa	Joaquim Rodríguez	Eddy Mazzoleni
2006	Xavier Florencio	Stefano Garzelli	Andréi Kashechkin
2007	Leonardo Bertagnolli	Juanma Gárate	Alejandro Valverde
2008	Alejandro Valverde	Aleksandr Kolobnev	Davide Rebellin
2009	Roman Kreuziger	Mickaël Delage	Peter Velits
2010	Luis León Sánchez	Alekszandr Vinokurov	Carlos Sastre
2011	Philippe Gilbert	Carlos Barredo	Greg Van Avermaet
2012	Luis León Sánchez	Simon Gerrans	Gianni Meersman
2013	Tony Gallopin	Alejandro Valverde	Roman Kreuziger
2014	Alejandro Valverde	Bauke Mollema	Joaquim Rodríguez
2015	Adam Yates	Philippe Gilbert	Alejandro Valverde
2016	Bauke Mollema	Tony Gallopin	Alejandro Valverde
2017	Michał Kwiatkowski	Tony Gallopin	Bauke Mollema
2018	Julian Alaphilippe	Bauke Mollema	Anthony Roux
2019	Event	Greg Van Avermaet	Marc Hirschi
2020	canceled
2021	Neilson Powless	Matej Mohorič	Mikkel Honoré
2022	Event	Pavel Sivakov	Tiesj Benoot
2023

Note: In the 2009 San Sebastián Clásica, Carlos Barredo was initially the winner, but was disqualified for doping (see Disqualification of Carlos Barredo).

Statistics

Most wins

Cycling	Victorias	Years
Marino Lejarreta	3	1981, 1982 and 1987
Francesco Casagrande	2	1998 and 1999
Laurent Jalabert	2	2001 and 2002
Luis León Sánchez	2	2010 and 2012
Alejandro Valverde	2	2008 and 2014
Event	2	2019 and 2022

Consecutive wins

• Two victories in a row:
  • Marino Lejarreta (1981, 1982)
  • Francesco Casagrande (1998, 1999)
  • Laurent Jalabert (2001, 2002)

In bold active brokers.

Human awards by country

Country	Victorias	Last winner
SpainSpain	12	Alejandro Valverde in 2014
ItalyItaly	7	Leonardo Bertagnolli in 2007
France	5	Julian Alaphilippe in 2018
NetherlandsNetherlands	4	Bauke Mollema in 2016
BelgiumBelgium	4	Evenepoel in 2022
United States	2	Neilson Powless in 2021
SwitzerlandSwitzerland	1	Niki Rüttimann in 1984
AustriaAustria	1	Gerhard Zadrobilek in 1989
Mexico Mexico	1	Raúl Alcalá in 1992
GermanyGermany	1	Udo Bölts in 1996
Czech RepublicCzech Republic	1	Roman Kreuziger in 2009
United KingdomUnited Kingdom	1	Adam Yates in 2015
PolandPoland	1	Michał Kwiatkowski in 2017