Kwiatkowski takes honours

– Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski (above) won a fiveway battle for the line as the 232km San Sebastian one-day Classic culminated with a thrilling finale on Saturday.

It was a third classic win this season for Kwiatkowski, who helped Sky team-mate Chris Froome maintain his grip on the yellow jersey in the Tour de France that ended last Sunday.

In a ferocious struggle to the line between mainly climb and hilly terrain specialists, 2013 winner Tony Gallopin of France was second and last year’s victor Bauke Mollema of the Netherlands was third.

The 2014 world road race champion punched the air after winning by less than a bike length, while Giro d’Italia winner Tom Dumoulin looked forlorn finishing in the same time in fourth place.

Sky’s Mikel Landa, fourth on the Tour de France, was fifth 2sec adrift.

“Such amazing Basque Spanish guys in the team today,” Kwiatkowski said after the race in reference to Landa and Mikel Nieve.

“You could see Mikel Landa playing his crucial role in the end, and I could go for the sprint easily. I’m very thankful to Mikel that he waited in the group in the front. Today was just amazing, the team spirit, we believed that we could win the race.”

Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet was many people’s favourite but he ran out of steam to finish eighth.

Landa had led Mollema and Gallopin over the last hill but Kwiatkowski and Dumoulin showed great power to bridge the gap and force a fan-friendly five-rider finale.

Kwiatkowski was the first Pole to win at San Sebastian, in its 37th edition, after a slog of 5hr 52min 53sec. – AFP