Clasica San Sebastian : Bertagnolli wins

The Italian Liquigas-rider Leonardo Bertagnolli has won the Clasica San Sebastian edition 2007 in a sprint with Basque Juan Manuel Garate. With Bertagnolli the Clasica gets a second "unknown" winner in a row with Xavier Florencio last year.



Race review
Early in the race a group of 21 left, among them Burghardt, Julich, De La Fuente, Caucchioli, Chavanal and the Euskaltel riders Galparsoro, Bru and Perez. But they didn't stay together very long so a little group of four escaped, Lopez Garcia, Albasini, Arrieta and the Belgian Vandewalle.

Behind them another group was formed with Perez Arrieta, Bossoni, Russ, Chavanel and Bru. The others from the first group got back into the peloton. As they went on to the Jaizkibel, the biggest difficulty in the race, Caisse d'Epargne and Discovery Channel made the pace in the peloton and because of that the headgroup had only 3 minutes advantage.

In the second group Bru and Chavanal had to pass so it was three against four so the secound group got caught by the peloton. In the peloton, that only has 25 riders anymore, Garate attacks as the first one but he didn't get away. In the front Lopez could not follow the others and had to pass before they reached the top. On the top the frontgroup still had 58 minutes on the peloton but then it's attacktime there. One after another attack Ricco, Carrara, Astarloza, Marchante ... but none of them gets away.

Due to these atacks the frontgroup got caught and there were only 20 riders left in front, among them the big favourites Valverde and Rebellin. In the descent of the last climb Bertagnolli and Garata left and they got an advantage of 30 seconds and nobody could get them back. Astarloza tried but he got Barredo in his wheel to stop him. In the sprint of two, they almost stopped riding but then Garate attacked but too early and Bertagnolli could easily get over him so he won his first classic.

Results
1. Leonardo Bertagnolli
2. Juan Manuel Garate
3. Alejandro Valverde
4. Alessandro Ballan
5. Carlos Barredo
6. Mikel Astarloza
7. Carlos Sastre
8. Inigo Landaluze
9. Xavier Florencio
10. Giovanni Visconti
...
18. Gorka Verdugo
23. Haimar Zubeldia
105. Samuel Sanchez
107. Ruben Perez