UAE defeated! Giulio Ciccone holds of Christen, Del Toro & Ayuso to win Clasica San Sebastian 2025 solo

Lidl-Trek's Giulio Ciccone has powered to the win at Clasica San Sebastian 2025, overcoming the challenge of UAE Team Emirates - XRG, through the likes of Jan Christen, Isaac del Toro and Juan Ayuso among others. 

12 riders got themselves up the road and into the day's early breakaway. Among them were the likes of Gil Gelders (Soudal - Quick-Step), Enzo Leijnse (Team Picnic PostNL), Paul Double (Team Jayco AlUla), and Ben Swift (INEOS Grenadiers).

It was Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team's Jordan Labrosse that was proving strongest of the break however, with the Frenchman solo at the front heading into the final 65km. With 46km to go, Labrosse was joined at the front by Luke Plapp and Mats Wenzel, but their time out front was numbered as early as 45km to go when Primoz Roglic launched a big attack from the peloton.

On the Erlaitz climb, Isaac del Toro and Giulio Ciccone then separated themselves from the rest of the race, entering the final 35km clear from the group of chasers that included Roglic, Plapp, and others by 40 seconds.

With 20km to go, and just one categorised climb remaining on the course, Del Toro and Ciccone's lead was still at around 51 seconds, with the chase behind starting to look at each other. As the Murgil-Tontorra began, Del Toro and Ciccone were still working well together, 48 seconds clear at the head of the race. Behind though, Roglic was starting to look dangerous once again.

Rather than Roglic however, it was Del Toro's own teammate, Jan Christen who was making the biggest move to close the gap, joining up with the Mexican and Ciccone at 9km to go. Christen didn't stick around long though, immediately attacking over the top and dropping his teammate. Ciccone though, matched the UAE attacks, and then countered with a move of his own to drop Christen and go solo, gapping his rivals by around 15-20 seconds by the top of the climb, with just 7.5km to go.

From there, it was all about the descent, and Christen was absolutely railing it on the downhill in an attempt to close the gap. There was no catching Ciccone though, as the Italian held on to take the victory.