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Marc Hirschi celebrates victory at Clásica San Sebastián with a roar.

San Sebastian report: Hirschi wins sprint à deux to take first WorldTour win in four years

UAE Team Emirates took charge of the Spanish summer classic, weathering the storm of Alaphilippe who had to settle for second.

Marc Hirschi’s win at the Clásica San Sebastián was his first WorldTour victory since 2020.

Kit Nicholson
by Kit Nicholson 10.08.2024 Photography by
Cor Vos
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Marc Hirschi has been operating under an increasingly unjustified cloud of doubt for the past few seasons, but he’s been steadily racking up results, culminating this weekend in what many will call a comeback win at San Sebastian where he out-sprinted Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) to take his biggest win in four years.

Visma-Lease a Bike arrived with a formidable team that was keen – perhaps predisposed – to control things with a ten-rider move up the road for much of the day, but it was UAE Team Emirates who stamped their dominance over proceedings once the last-remaining breakaway rider was reeled in 43 km from the finish. As Pavel Sivakov held off a chasing group of about 20, Hirschi and three teammates were able to sit in the wheels and wait as Lotto Dstny set the pace.

Then on the final vicious climb where Sivakov’s day was ended, Alaphilippe made his move, and after a number of accelerations, only Hirschi could stay with him over the top, and the pair rode together to the line where the fresher Hirschi took the prize. Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny) was best of the rest in third, rewarding the work of his teammates in the heated chase.

Alaphilippe was a key protagonist in the last 45 km, with Lennert van Eetvelt (right) and his Lotto Dstny team also throwing their weight around, especially on the final climb.
Carr had gone clear on the Jaizkibel, the second-longest climb of the day, with Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Lidl-Trek) and Ben Zwiehoff (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) briefly on his case, but though he survived longest, Carr never posed a significant threat on the flat roads leading to the penultimate climb.
Two men with two very different roles: Sivakov, strong though he very definitely is, was playing a team role, while Alaphilippe had to preserve his own matches with over 40 km left to race.
Basque fans take some beating, and they love a >25% gradient.
Van Eetvelt was looking brilliant, like Hirschi only coming out of the wheels on the final climb, but he could not respond when Alaphilippe made his last devastating acceleration.

Top 10

  1. Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) 5:46:12
  2. Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) st.
  3. Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny) +0:07
  4. Kevin Kermaeke (DSM-firmenich PostNL) +0:17
  5. Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:25
  6. Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) st.
  7. Patrick Konrad (Lidl-Trek) st.
  8. Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) st.
  9. Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates) +0:36
  10. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) +0:37

Quotes of the day:

I think if there was one less Lotto [Dstny] guy Pavel [Sivakov] would win today. They closed and we were ready, we were three guys still so we went full gas on the last climb … We just suffered to the top and then we looked back and we were only two so we knew we had to continue, and we had a nice sprint.”

Hirschi said at the finish.

I feel happy to be back on the podium of a big race and of course little bit disappointed to be really close … I was really suffering [on the last climb], but I felt good so I did my tempo. In the end, I did my best, and Marc Hirschi was really strong. He did a good sprint, good timing and he’s also really explosive.”

Alaphilippe said after finishing second at the race he won in 2018.

Brief analysis:

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