Single-handedly again: Evenepoel wins in San Sebastian

The 22-year-old from the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team took victory in the Basque Country after 224.8 kilometres with a lead of around two minutes over Pavel Sivakov, who is now racing for France. Evenepoel, who was not at the start of the Tour de France, had won in similar style. already won the spring classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège in April.

• LeBron James joins Canyon

Pogacar plays no role in San Sebastian

The German classics specialist Maximilian Schachmann had to abandon early on and played no part in the decision. Slovenian Tour de France runner-up Tadej Pogacar and almost-mountain king Simon Geschke also ran out of steam.

• Transfer window opens: Fixed transfers & expiring contracts at the teams

"It was a perfect race. Next to Liège, this is my favourite race. I can now head to the Vuelta with a lot of confidence," said Evenepoel, who pulled away from fellow British breakaway rider Simon Yates 44 kilometres from the finish and then took his second victory in San Sebastian after 2019 in commanding style. It was the youngster's eleventh win of the season.

The 1st stage of the Tour of Poland also took place on Saturday, where Phil Bauhaus is among the top three sprinted.

Copyright 2022, dpa (www.dpa.de). All rights reserved