Barredo wins wet San Sebastián Classic

Spain's Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) won a wet Clásica San Sebastián in Spain today from an escape group. He sprinted ahead of Czech Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) along the waterfront in San Sebastián after 237 kilometres of racing, including the Alto de Jaizkibel climb.

"Sports-wise this is the best day of my life," said Barredo.

"There were a lot of adversaries today, but I knew I could be up there with the best. So I tried to ride my race without worrying about the competition too much. Too many times in the past I lost the moment because I was waiting for my adversaries."

Barredo made the winning move with France's Pierrick Fédrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) on the final categorised climb, Arkale, at 15 kilometres remaining. They passed Russian Evgeni Petrov (Katusha), who had escaped with a group of riders on the Jaizkibel climb.

Tour de France riders ruled the race's final kilometres.

Barredo and Tour's stage nine winner, Fédrigo, went over the top of Arkale with only a six-second lead. Kreuziger led the chase with an attack before the top, joined by Kim Kirchen (Columbia-HTC) and Luis León Sánchez (Caisse d'Epargne).

"It was very dangerous with the wet descents, the selection was made on the descents instead of the climbs," said Kreuziger.

Spaniard Sánchez caught Fédrigo and a solo Barredo after the descent of Arkale, 11 kilometres remaining. Kreuziger, Kirchen and Fédrigo continued their chase behind.

Sánchez showed the same speed he had when he won the Tour's stage eight three weeks ago. His presence ruled out the chances of last year's San Sebastián winner and teammate, Alejandro Valverde. Valverde was in the main group behind the front five riders.

The race re-shuffled on the un-categorised Miracruz climb outside of San Sebastián. Italian Champion Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) attacked from Valverde's group and caught the chasing trio and Kreuziger attacked on the descent.

Kreuziger, around two kilometres remaining, passed Sánchez and Barredo to ride solo briefly. Barredo re-joined him before the final one kilometre. Kreuziger led until the final 200 metres, when he was unable to respond to the sprint of Barredo.

The main group of chasers caught Pozzato's group before the sprint. France's Mickaël Delage (Silence-Lotto) led over the line for third seven seconds behind Barredo and Kreuziger.

"In the Tour de France I tried attacking thousands of times without luck," said Barredo.

Barredo featured in escape groups in the Tour de France's stages to Aubenas and Paris. Last year, he attacked with Marcus Burghardt in stage 18 to Saint-Étienne but lost the sprint.

Barredo won his first race with team Quick Step earlier in 2008 at Paris-Nice, stage five. He started his professional career with Liberty Seguros in 2004.

Read the live report.