The Clásica de San Sebastián, Explained: Spain’s Biggest One-Day Race

Curated by Gary Edgington · Explainer

Two weeks after the Tour de France empties out of Paris, the peloton reassembles on the Basque coast for the biggest one-day race in Spain and one of the most loved on the entire calendar. The Clásica de San Sebastián — Donostiako Klasikoa in Basque — is a savage, hilly classic through the green mountains above the Bay of Biscay, a race that rewards the sport’s punchiest climbers and regularly turns the form book from July on its head. Here is what it is, where it is raced, who has won it, and what to watch when the 45th edition rolls out on 1 August 2026.

What it is, and where it sits

The Clásica is a one-day race on the UCI WorldTour, cycling’s top tier, held every year in late July or early August. It is comfortably the most important single-day race in Spanish cycling, and while it does not carry the near-mythic weight of the five Monuments — Milan–San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris–Roubaix, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Tour of Lombardy — it sits comfortably in the rank just below them. Its position on the calendar is a big part of the appeal. Landing so soon after the Tour, it is where riders fresh from three weeks in France either confirm their form or discover the tank is empty, and where those who watched July from home get a marquee day of their own. Recent editions have been billed, aptly, as a chance to step out of the Tour’s shadow.

Where it is raced: Donostia and the Basque hills

The race starts and finishes in San Sebastián — Donostia in Basque — the elegant seaside city in Gipuzkoa, in the Basque Country of northern Spain, curled around the shell-shaped bay of La Concha. From there it loops out for well over two hundred kilometres through the steep, wooded coastal mountains that rise straight off the Atlantic. This is the beating heart of world cycling’s most fanatical region: the Basque Country turns out in its tens of thousands, hillsides thick with flag-waving supporters, and the passion on the roadside is a spectacle in its own right. Few races anywhere are so completely bound up with the identity of the place that hosts them, and the Basque Country’s obsession with the sport — its packed roadsides, its long line of home-grown champions, its teams built on regional pride — gives the day an atmosphere closer to a national holiday than a bike race.

The climbs that decide it

San Sebastián is won and lost on its hills, and three in particular shape the race. The Jaizkibel, a long coastal ascent of around 7.9 kilometres at a steady 5.5 percent, is the race’s historic signature climb and traditional launchpad, cresting with roughly 140 kilometres covered. In the modern route the decisive damage comes later and steeper. The Erlaitz, some 3.9 kilometres at a brutal 10.6 percent, thins the field inside the final 40 kilometres, and then the Murgil-Tontorra — barely two kilometres long but averaging close to ten percent, with a final ramp touching fourteen — delivers the knockout blow inside the last ten kilometres before a short, technical plunge back into the city. It is a finale tailor-made for the kind of explosive climber-puncheur our explainer on the puncheur was written to describe: too steep for the sprinters, too short for the pure Grand Tour diesels, and perfect for a rider who can detonate one violent effort when it counts.

History and legacy

The Clásica is a relatively young classic, first run in 1981. It was the brainchild of Jaime Ugarte, a cycling journalist at the San Sebastián newspaper Diario Vasco, who wanted a professional race to inspire the region’s amateurs and raise the city’s cycling profile, consciously modelled on the great European Monuments. It succeeded almost immediately: the race grew into Spain’s premier one-day event, earned a place in the sport’s top tier, and has stayed rooted in Donostia ever since, organised by Basque cycling bodies and woven into the fabric of local life. For a race that only just turned forty, its roll of honour already reads like a directory of the finest one-day riders of the modern era.

Who has won here

Two men share the record with three victories apiece. The first is the Basque hero Marino Lejarreta, who won the inaugural edition in 1981 and again in 1982 and 1987, roared on by his home crowds. The second is Remco Evenepoel, who equalled the mark with a hat-trick of modern wins in 2019, 2022 and 2023. In between and around them, the race has been claimed by a parade of classics greats — Paolo Bettini, Davide Rebellin, Philippe Gilbert and more. The recent roll of honour underlines how selective the finale has become: Adam Yates (2015), Bauke Mollema (2016), Michał Kwiatkowski (2017) and Julian Alaphilippe (2018) preceded Evenepoel’s breakthrough, and after the pandemic wiped out the 2020 running, Neilson Powless took a popular win in 2021. Marc Hirschi outsprinted Alaphilippe in 2024, and in 2025 Giulio Ciccone attacked over the top of the Murgil to arrive alone — the defending champion as the 2026 race approaches.

The 2026 race: who is coming

The 45th Clásica de San Sebastián is set for Saturday 1 August 2026, and with a fortnight still to run the start list is only provisional. Even so, the early entries point to a typically strong field of climbers and puncheurs. João Almeida, one of the sport’s most consistent stage-race climbers, is among the headline names, alongside the Basque region’s own Pello Bilbao — always a marked man in front of his home fans — plus the in-form Felix Gall, the young Italian Giulio Pellizzari, the American climber Matthew Riccitello and the vastly experienced Bauke Mollema, a former winner. Expect the field to fill out with riders sharpening their legs for the Vuelta and with one-day specialists chasing a signature result. As ever, the names to watch are the ones who can still turn the pedals over on the Erlaitz and the Murgil after two hundred kilometres in the Basque heat — and, given the run of recent editions, do not be surprised if the winner comes clear alone on that final wall.

Why it matters

The Clásica de San Sebastián is the rare race that manages to be both a serious contest and a genuine party. It offers a proper one-day prize for the climbers and puncheurs who spend the Grand Tours in service of others, a first read on who has carried their July form into August, and a stage on which the sport’s most passionate region gets to show itself off. For anyone finding their feet in the sport, our guide to the Vuelta a España covers the Spanish Grand Tour that follows a few weeks later, and our primer on how the biggest races work lays out the jerseys and tactics behind them. But for one glorious Saturday on the Basque coast, the Clásica needs no grand tour to justify itself — it is simply one of the best days of racing all year.

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