Remco Evenepoel edges Pello Bilbao in thrilling two-up sprint to land third Clasica San Sebastian title
By Ben Snowball
Published 29/07/2023 at 17:13 GMT+1
The 2023 Clasica San Sebastian came down to a sprint showdown between Remco Evenepoel and Pello Bilbao – with the world champion proving the strongest in a thrilling finish. Evenepoel joins Marino Lejarreta as a three-time winner of the race, while Bilbao will be buoyed by how close he came to pulling off a huge upset after staying with the Belgian on the final climb.
Evenepoel claims record-equalling third win at Clasica San Sebastian
Video credit: TNT Sports
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) claimed a record-equalling third Clasica San Sebastian title after seeing off Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) in a gripping two-up sprint.
Evenepoel whittled down a group of escapees to three on the Cat. 2 climb Mendizorrotz with 40km remaining as Bilbao and Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-hansgrohe) clung on, denying the Belgian his familiar solo charge in northern Spain.
He upped the tempo on the final ascent, the Cat. 2 Murgil-Tontorra, as Vlasov wilted and fell back. But Bilbao was looking his equal and even dropped a couple of half-attacks of his own, with the pair still together after a hair-raising descent back to the seafront.
It came down to a sprint where Evenepoel finally cracked his Basque rival before sitting up to celebrate wildly as he charged through the finish.
Evenepoel will next head to Glasgow to target a second road race title and a maiden time trial rainbow jersey at the World Championships, before heading to the Vuelta a Espana for another title defence.
He built his season around the Giro d'Italia but was forced to retire from the race due to Covid, just hours after taking the race lead.
Ahead of the Clasica San Sebastian, Evenepoel slammed reports that suggested he was looking to extricate himself from his contract at Soudal-QuickStep.
The Belgian has been repeatedly linked with Ineos Grenadiers, who are desperate to land a GC superstar to compete with two-time Tour de France champions Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates).
"It's actually funny because, from the outside, you guys know more than I do," Evenepoel said. "So it's some things that are going around that I'm not even aware of myself and also within my entourage, and my family doesn't even know about all those things. So it's things going around that I don't even know about, which is pretty special.
"I think mentally I'm strong enough to focus on what I have to do in the summer. I mean, there's no reason to be unhappy here. It's all a bit of, let's say, small b******t that is going around. Sorry for the word I didn't know a better word to say."
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Stream the 2023 Cycling World Championships and Vuelta a Espana live and on-demand on discovery+ and eurosport.com
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