Nicolas Roche of Team Sky takes his best result of the season in Spain, with Dan Martin not too far behind.
Nicolas Roche has taken a top 10 in his first major race of the last section of his season; coming home in a chasing group 34 seconds down on lone victor Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) in the Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian.
The Irish road and TT champion looked in great condition throughout the 220km event, always near the front of the group and riding very strongly in the final climb of Murgil Tontorra.
It was there on the short and steep ascent that the race split to the pieces; the order of the leading small groups remaining the same from the top of the climb all the way to the finish just over 7km down the road.
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Roche crested the climb slight adrift of the leading group and while he would never see the front of the race again, his period at altitude training instead of riding the Tour de France has clearly left him in good form.
The final proper started with just over 9km to go when Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac) attacked on the final climb and Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) went after him, with Roche also reacting just behind.
The best bit; final 13km
When the Colombian aggressor was pegged back, Yates immediately jumped again and pulled clear with Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha).
The Spanish rider then pressed on alone and held a gap of a few seconds on what was now a very small select group of riders that included Roche; the reduced peloton immediately exploding once the final climb commenced.
With about 1km to the top of the climb, Bauke Mollema (Trek Segafredo) was the man who brought Rodriguez back but he only had Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal) in tow when he made contact with him.
And cresting the final climb those four led by no more than five or six seconds from another group of four which included Roche.
Over the climb and it was Tour de France revelation Mollema who attacked off the front and went clear alone from Gallopin, Valverde and Rodriguez.
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And going past the 7km to go marker the lone leader had seven seconds on the three chasers, with roughly the same gap back to the Roche quartet.
Mollema takes the biggest win of his career after a fantastic ride saw him pull away from other top names (Photo: Sirotti)
Mollema put the head down and was fully committed in the hunt for what would be just the seventh victory of his pro career.
And while it was touch and go for the lone leader - the gap coming down to four seconds before shooting back out again when the chasers messed about – Mollema hung on for a fantastic win after 5½ hours in the saddle.
Gallopin then beat Valverde in a sprint for second with Rodriguez slightly adrift in 4th place having sat up and not contested the gallop.
Just behind the Spaniard from Katusha came the Roche group, which had swelled to seven in the final kilometres; the Irishman taking 9th place.
Dan Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) was 12th, coming home second in the sprint from a large group 50 seconds down on the winner.
The cousins look in great condition for the Olympics and with some rest for Martin and some further tuning of Roche’s form – which is clearly already very good – they can have a big impact in Brazil and could pull off a medal if things went their way.
Sat, July 30th: Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian
1 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 5:31:00
2 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal 0:00:17
3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team
4 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:00:22
5 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team 0:00:34
6 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step
7 Simon Yates (GBr) Orica-BikeExchange
8 Tom Jelte Slagter (Ned) Cannondale-Drapac
9 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky
10 Dries Devenyns (Bel) IAM Cycling 0:00:37
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