page_title: 2015 Clásica de San Sebastián
section_title: Route
hierarchical_section_title: 2015 Clásica de San Sebastián / Route
caption_attribution_description: San Sebastián, España
context_page_description: The 2015 Clásica de San Sebastián was a one-day cycling classic that took place in the Basque Country in Spain on 1 August 2015. It was the 35th edition of the Clásica de San Sebastián and was the nineteenth race of the 2015 UCI World Tour. The defending champion was Alejandro Valverde, who won a solo victory in the 2014 race.
  The race took place in and around the city of San Sebastián and was 219 kilometres in length. The principal difficulty in the race was the sequence of climbs in the final part of the course. Adam Yates attacked on the final climb, the Bordako Tontorra. Greg Van Avermaet was leading the race at the time, but he was hit by a race motorbike, forcing him out of the race. Yates went on to win a solo victory, 15 seconds ahead of the chasing group, becoming the first British rider to win the race. Valverde came third behind Philippe Gilbert.
context_section_description: The race began in San Sebastián with a 3.7 kilometres (2.3 mi) neutral zone and left the city to the west, along the coast of the Bay of Biscay. After 22.6 kilometres (14.0 mi), in Zarautz, the course turned to the south for another 24 kilometres (15 mi) to come to Azpeitia. Here the route turned to the east and began climbing towards the first categorised climb of the day. The road gradually climbed for over 13 kilometres (8.1 mi), but only the final 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) were categorised. This section of road, the Alto de Iturburu, had an average gradient of 5% and was a first-category climb. The summit of the climb came after 59.5 kilometres (37.0 mi).
  After the descent, there was a fairly flat section of the course. This took the riders northeast for approximately 60 kilometres (37 mi) through Hernani, Oiartzun and Lezo before the first of two ascents of the Alto de Jaizkibel. This was also a first-category climb; it was 7.8 kilometres (4.8 mi) in length at an average gradient of 5.8%. The summit of the climb came after 125 kilometres (78 mi), with 94 kilometres (58 mi) to go to the finish. There was then a descent and a fairly flat 20-kilometre (12 mi) section of road through Irun. The next climb was the second-category Alto Arkale. This was 2.7 kilometres (1.7 mi) at 6.3%; the summit came with 71.2 kilometres (44.2 mi) remaining. The descent took the riders through Oiartzun and then into a second loop through the climbs of the Alto de Jaizkibel and the Alto Arkale. At the second summit of the Alto Arkale, there were 30.8 kilometres (19.1 mi) remaining to the finish line.
  The next section of the course was 20 kilometres (12 mi) of fairly flat roads. During this section of the race, the riders returned to San Sebastián and crossed the finish line; at this point there were still 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) remaining. The riders left the town again to face the final climb of the day, the second-category Bordako Tontorra. This was a 2.5-kilometre (1.6 mi) climb at 9%; at the summit there were 7.1 kilometres (4.4 mi) of descent and then flat roads to the finish. The final climb was introduced in the 2014 edition and included gradients up to 20%; the lead group was formed on this ascent in the 2014 race, with Alejandro Valverde attacking on the descent and maintaining a gap to the finish line.
caption: The city of San Sebastián from the summit of the Bordako Tontorra, the final climb of the race
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