One week after finishing the best Tour de France performance of his career, Remco Evenepoel will be back in competition, leading Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe in the Clásica San Sebastián / Donostia Klasikoa as the overwhelming favourite to win.
The start list includes a few other prominent names from the 2026 Tour de France alongside Evenepoel, who is marking a rapid re-entry to racing after finishing second to Tadej Pogačar in Paris.
Evenepoel, the winner in 2019, 2022 and 2023, will be looking to take the outright record for most victories in the Spanish WorldTour race, having been tied with 1980s racer Marino Lejarreta since his latest win three years ago.
Latest Videos FromCyclingnews
It will remain to be seen on Saturday afternoon whether or not Evenepoel has recovered from an intense Tour de France and how he can fare against riders who are fresher.
The 221.1-kilometre race is one of the hilliest one-day WorldTour races on the calendar, and typically comes down to either a solo breakaway or a small group thanks to the presence of the brutally steep Murgil climb in the final 10 kilometres.
The race has two phases - a selective first half with four categorised climbs - and the final 80 kilometres with major ascents of the Jaizkibel, Erlaitz and Murgil, with the last topping out with just 8.2km to go.
In two of his three victories in San Sebastián, Evenepoel arrived alone thanks to the late climbs. In 2019, he escaped after the penultimate climb and then dropped his sole companion Toms Skujins on the Murgil. In 2022, he used the Erlaitz ascent with 44km to go to get away solo, and then in 2023, only Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) was able to stick to Evenepoel but lost out in the sprint.
Red Bull are bringing other notable climbers in Maxim Van Gils, Giulio Pelizzari and Dani Martínez. It will be intriguing to see how the German team employs such a powerhouse roster around their star leader.
Bahrain Victorious announced they would be supporting Jakob Omrzel in the race, but local rider Pello Bilbao will be looking to go out with a bang before he retires at the end of the season. However, out of eight starts, Bilbao only landed in the top 10 when he lost to Evenepoel.
"Together with Itzulia, this is the most special race for me. It’s a beautiful race, a postcard race in San Sebastián, and it’s also a special occasion because I’ll be saying goodbye to my home fans," Bilbao said.
"I would have liked to arrive here in different condition, coming straight from the Tour de France and at my very best, but instead I’m still building towards the Vuelta a España. Even so, racing at home always gives me wings. I’ll try to be among the protagonists, and we’ll do everything we can to animate the race and enjoy such a special day.”
While Lidl-Trek are giving top-10 Tour de France finishers Mattias Skjelmose and Juan Ayuso a break, the team will be represented by Toms Skujins and Derek Gee-West, who supported them during the Tour. They will turn their attention to helping defending champion Giulio Ciccone, who soloed to the win in San Sebastián last year.
Former winner Neilson Powless isn't on EF Education-EasyPost's roster; the team has two contenders in Ben Healy and Richard Carapaz, both fresh off the Tour de France.
Visma-Lease a Bike will field Matteo Jorgenson and Ben Tulett as contenders, while UAE Team Emirates XRG have last year's runner-up Jan Christen and triple Giro d'Italia stage winner Jhonatan Narváez.
Jayco-AlUla, riding high on Mauro Schmid's Tour de France stage victory, have put the Swiss rider on the roster for San Sebastián.
Having had a lacklustre Tour, Tudor Pro Cycling will be hoping to get another top performance in San Sebastián out of Marc Hirschi, who won the race in 2024 and was third in 2019. However, the Swiss rider has not performed close to his previous best since leaving UAE Team Emirates for Tudor last year.
Other contenders include Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto Intermarché), and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ).
