Jonas Vingegaard anticipates 27% climb at Clasica San Sebastian: "It will be very tough and decisive"

The Clasica San Sebastian is one of the few World Tour races that are definitely not afraid of putting in the toughest climbs possible in the region. With no sprinters to please, the race organizers have gone all out to find and inset in the route the steepest road they could find and they might have succeeded with the climb to Pilotegi that maxes out at 27%. Jonas Vingegaard was asked about this ascent before the start of today's tace.

“I have definitely seen the final climb. I have reconnoitered Pilotegi. It is a very steep climb. It will be very tough and decisive. I hope it will suit me. If you don't have good legs, it will be difficult," he said in a short and direct post-race interview.

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The fact is that tactics will matter very little at that point of the race and it will all be about the legs. The route features 4400 meters of climbing and has over the past years been turned into a race for the climbers, with classics riders and puncheurs struggling. The climb to Erlaitz (almost 4 kilometers at 10%) late on makes it very difficult for non-climbers to survive, and the race has often been decided here.

But the final climb of the day will come in the very last kilometers of the race, the new Pilotegi ascent. It is 2.1 kilometers long at 10.7%; but the final 600 meters average 20%... And the gradients will go up as high as 27%. The riders have found similar in this race in previous year, but there continues to be no way around it. Vingegaard is a fan of the longer climbs, but nevertheless if he has good legs he could be able to make the difference here as well as he searches his first win since racing the Tour de France.

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