Adam Yates takes solo win at Clásica San Sebastián

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Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) took the biggest win of his young career at the Clásica San Sebastian on Saturday, with victory coming as a huge surprise after the 22-year-old British rider believed a breakaway had finished ahead of him.

Yates only realised he had won after he passed the finish line and saw his soigneur celebrating. He only then started to celebrate his win but still needed convincing after the race.

“I didn’t know I’d won. I spoke to my directeur sportif but the radio was too quiet to hear him. I honestly thought there was a break up the road,” Yates explained briefly before crowned the winner on the podium. “I didn’t know what had exactly happened up front in the finale. I just went full gas and so I won but at the time I had no idea.”

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A problem with the plane that helps transit live television images was the cause for confusion with teams and commentators forced to follow the action by official race radio. Yates attacked on the final climb of the 219km Clásica, the steep Bordako Tontorra that summited just seven kilometres from the finish line.

He blasted past the remains of a late attack that included Philippe Gilbert (BMC) and Ryder Hesjedal (Cannondale-Garmin) and passed Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), who was apparently hit by a race motorbike after attacking first. The Belgian later vented his anger via Twitter but failed to finish the race after breaking his bike.

Yates did not hesitate despite the confusion and surged on, blasting between the walls of shouting Basque cycling fans. He started the descent with a handful of seconds on the chasers and kept going.

Last year, Adam Yates was in the select front group but crashed on the twisting descent. This time he had no problem and used his evident Tour de France form to dive down the descent and power to the finish.

Behind, big favourites Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) joined the group of chasers but they failed to work together, helping Yates stay away.

They sat up on the descent and then refused to work smoothly on the final flat kilometres into San Sebastian, allowing Yates to open his lead to 15 seconds.

In the final kilometre, Yates tried desperately to obtain info from his Orica-GreenEdge team car but the crowd drowned out any updates during one of the best moments of his young career.

How it happened

Before the hectic, confused finale, the Clásica San Sebastian followed its traditional pattern with the early break of eight riders surviving the two climbs of the Jaizkibel.

The eight were Manuel Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo), Valerio Agnoli (Astana), Dennis Vannendert (Lotto Soudal), Nathan Haas (Cannondale-Garmin), Maarten Wynants (LottoNL-Jumbo), Thomas Degand (IAM Cycling), Lluis Mas (Caja Rural) and Romain Hardy (Cofidis) but the peloton never let them gain more than three-minutes, with the Movistar team doing a lot of work on the front to keep them in check.

The second climb of the Jaizkibel saw the break explode after Boaro attacked alone. He got a gap but faced a long, lone battle in pursuit of victory. Several groups attacked from the peloton on the Jaizkibel and that helped a 16-rider group form later over the top of the Alto Arkale climb with 30km to go. Gilbert was convinced the move was the right attack and worked hard to make it stay away. Hesjedal was also in the move as the Movistar and Katusha lead peloton waited for the late and decisive Bordako Tontorra climb.

Behind, Valverde and the others hesitated and missed their chance, perhaps convinced that Yates would not make it to the finish on his own. They must have forgotten how strong the young British rider was in the Tour de France and his performance in last year’s race. It was a huge mistake to let Yates go and he finished off a perfect attack, even if he did not know he had won.  

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