19 year old Remco Evenepoel Powers to San Sebastian Classic victory

Remco Evenepoel won the San Sebastian Classic in a thrilling race attacking on the final climb to solo to the finish after 236 km of racing

The race saw Tour de France podium team mate Julian Alaphilippe drop out less than halfway through and Egan Bernal nowhere to be seen in the peloton.

The Belgian becomes the youngest ever winner of a World Tour race at 19 years old.

He adds this to his palmares fter winning the Tour of Belgium in June and last week's victory in Aalst after attacking the peloton with 20km to go.

Deceuninck-Quick Step rider Evenepoel is in his first year as a professional but been compared to countryman and cycling legend Eddy Merckx.

"I really did not feel good today for most of the race," stated Evenepoel after the race, "This is incredible. I really can't believe it. I've always dreamed of a win like this but doing it in my first year was amazing."

Evenepoel's teammate Alaphilippe, who held the yellow jersey at the Tour de France for 14 stages abandoned the Basque Country race after 90km. The Frenchman reportedly pulled up with muscle fatigue built up since the end of the Tour de France.

Alaphilippe was a favorite to retain his 2018 San Sebastian title, and the race also looked set to feature a battle between him and Tour de France champion Egan Bernal.

It was Toms Skujins and Evenepoel who attacked the peloton as the race reached the final brutal climb, with Skujins attacking with 20km left, before being joined by Evenepoel who was covering the move for his Quickstep team 

However, Evenepoel rode away from Skujins on the final steep climb before it reached its summit, and he then held off the peloton on the final descent to the finish.

Grag Van Avermaet (CCC Team) won the bunch sprint ahead of Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb).

2019 San Sebastian Classic Top 10

1 Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep 5:44:27 
2 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) CCC Team 0:00:38 
3 Marc Hirschi (Swi) Team Sunweb   
4 Gorka Izagirre Insausti (Spa) Astana Pro Team   
5 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo   
6 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe   
7 Jelle Vanendert (Bel) Lotto Soudal   
8 Enric Mas (Spa) Deceuninck-QuickStep   
9 Michael Woods (Can) EF Education First   
10 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team