Van Eetvelt and Maxim van Gils went through the climb of Erlaitz in the small chasing group to Pavel Sivakov. Then, with trust in van Eetvelt,
Lotto Dstny decided to chase the lone attacker themselves with van Gils and Andreas Kron leading the group until the final climb. "Today, Andreas and Maxim said they wanted to go for me. When such strong riders ride for you, it gives you a lot of confidence."
There he paced himself perfectly and hit the front in the steep part of the ascent. He paced it all the way to the top, dropping everyone except for Julian Alaphilippe and Marc Hirschi who then attacked near the summit. He couldn't catch up once again, but still rode ahead of the rest to take the final place of the podium at the end. "It’s a shame that I couldn’t follow the first two in the final. But third in San Sebastián, that’s great.”