Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) wins the San Sebastian classic, a 236km race in the Basque Country.

In the first phase of the race a breakaway of ten riders livens up the race and acquires a maximum advantage of around 4'.

On the Erlaitz climb, the penultimate climb of the day, anything goes: Landa, Vingegaard, Kuss and S.Yates , among the big favourites today, immediately break away, while Carr , the last escapee of the day, is caught by an attack by Alaphilippe and Sivakov .

The UAE Team Emirates rider remains alone in the lead and reaches the summit with a 25" margin on a small group of twenty riders behind him.

On the first ramps of Erlaitz, Alaphilippe attacks decisively and catches up with Sivakov. Mcnulty, Hirschi, Konrad, Narvaez and Van Eetvelt also take the lead. The latter extends his lead at the hardest point of the climb: only Alaphilippe and Hirschi manage to stay on his wheel. The Belgian from Lotto Dstny, however, pays for the effort and drops just near the top.

The victory of the Spanish classic is played out in a sprint between Hirschi and Alaphilippe, with the Swiss triumphing at the end of an exciting sprint. Third place for a positive Van Eetvelt in his return to world tour racing after the excellent results at the beginning of the season.

ORDER OF ARRIVAL:

1 HIRSCHI Marc UAE Team Emirates 5:46:12

2 ALAPHILIPPE Julian Soudal Quick-Step ,,

3 VAN EETVELT Lennert Lotto Dstny 0:07

4 VERMAERKE Kevin Team dsm-firmenich PostNL 0:17

5 NARVÁEZ Jhonatan INEOS Grenadiers 0:25

6 POWLESS Neilson EF Education - EasyPost,,

7 KONRAD Patrick Lidl - Trek ,,

8 WOODS Michael Israel - Premier Tech,,

9 CHRISTEN Jan UAE Team Emirates 0:36

10 MCNULTY Brandon UAE Team Emirates 0:37

Photo: Sprint Cycling Agency