Classica San Sebastian podium history | 1999 edition | 1997 edition

August 8, 1998: San Sebastian - San Sebastian, 232 km.

Winner Francesco Casagrande wins ahead of Axel Merckx

The race: Here's the UCI summary:

The Classico San Sebastian, the sixth of the ten UCI World Cup races, started from the seafront of San Sebastian. 186 riders from 24 teams started the race, with Michele Bartoli (Asics) wearing the special UCI World Cup leader's jersey.

The weather was hot and the 232km with two big climbs would make for some hard racing.

Early attacker of the day was Frenchman Frederic Vasseur (FRA, Credit Agricole). He broke clear alone after just 24km and stayed away for 143km. This attack was a move to display the colours of his new sponsor Credit Agricole, who took over sponsorship from Gan after the Tour de France.

Vasseur gained a maximum lead of almost 20 minutes but was swept up with 55km remaining as the peloton approached the decisive climb of Alto de Jaizkibel (455m).

On the 8km climb, after an attack by world number one Laurent Jalabert (FRA, Once) (see UCI Rankings as opposed to UCI World Cup Standings - ed), the Cofidis team set the pace with Armin Meier stretching out the peloton. With four kilometers to go to the treeless summit, as the climb rose at 8%, Italian Francesco Casagrande took over from his Cofidis team mate Meier, and with a daunting attack splintered the field.

After he had pushed the pace for two kilometres, only Merckx and Piepoli could hang on to Casagrande's wheel. Last year's winner Davide Rebellin (ITA, Team Polti), Bobby Julich (USA, Cofidis) and Paolo Savoldelli (ITA, Saeco) chased behind. At the summit of the climb, the three attackers clung onto a 20 second lead.

On the winding descent a chase group of 15 riders formed behind Casagrande, Merckx and Piepoli. At one point, the chase group got to 15 seconds behind but since it included several team mates of the three attackers, only the Mapei team worked to close the gap.

With 18km to go, Daniele Nardello (ITA, Mapei) jumped away to try to cross the growing gap. He was joined by team mate Andrea Tafi, Max Sciandri (La Francaise des Jeux) and Angel Luis Casero (Vitalicio Seguros). However even this talented group chased in vain, as the leader's margin of over a minute proved impregnable.
On the run-in to the finish , Casagrande was clearly the strongest. Every time he took a turn at the front, Merckx and Piepoli suffered to stay on his wheel.

At the finish along the seafront, all three riders jumped at the same time. Casagrande was on the left, with Merckx in the middle and Piepoli on the right. It was Merckx's 26th birthday today and he clearly wanted to win but Casagrande was a lot stronger and easily passed the tall Belgian before the line. He won by three bike lengths and had time to blow a kiss to the crowd and raise his arms in the air.

With the hundred points awarded for winning, Casagrande moved into second place in the UCI World Cup standings behind Michele Bartoli (ITA, Asics). Third is Franco Ballerini (Mapei-Bricobi), with Emmanuel Magnien (La Francaise des Jeux) fourth.

Complete Results:

192 starters, 132 classified finishers

232 kilometers raced at an average speed of 40.495 km/hr

1	Francesco Casagrande	Cofidis	5hr 43min 4sec
2	Axel Merckx	Polti	s.t.
3	Leonardo Piepoli	Saeco-Estro	@ 2sec
4	Andrea Tafi	Mapei-Bricobi	1'15"
5	Daniele Nardello	Mapei-Bricobi	s.t.
6	Maximilian Sciandri	La Française des Jeux	1'20"
7	Angel Luis Casero	Vitalicio Seguros	s.t.
8	Leon Van Bon	Rabobank	1'43"
9	Udo Bölts	Deutsche Telekom	s.t.
10	Giuseppe Di Grande	Mapei-Bricobi	s.t.
11	Paolo Savoldelli	Saeco-Estro	s.t.
12	Davide Rebellin	Polti	s.t.
13	Bobby Julich	Cofidis	s.t.
14	Marty Jemison	US Postal Service	s.t.
15	Alessandro Baronti	Cantina Tollo	s.t.
16	Abraham Olano	Banesto	s.t.
17	Roland Meier	Cofidis	s.t.
18	Stefano Cattai	Ballan	s.t.
19	Peter Farazijn	Lotto-Mobistar-Isoglass	s.t.
20	Prudencio Indurain	Vitalicio Seguros	s.t.
21	Frank Vandenbroucke	Mapei-Bricobi	s.t.
22	Alberto Elli	Casino	s.t.
23	Fernando Escartin	Kelme-Costa Blanca	s.t.
24	Santiago Blanco	Vitalicio Seguros	s.t.
25	Manuel Beltran	Banesto	s.t.
26	Leonardo Guidi	Polti	4'32"
27	Paolo Valoti	Cantina Tollo	4'35"
28	Christophe Mengin	La Française des Jeux	4'59"
29	Massimiliano Mori	Saeco-Estro	s.t.
30	Stefano Colage	Cantina Tollo	s.t.
31	Luca Mazzanti	Cantina Tollo	s.t.
32	François Simon	Crédit Agricole	s.t.
33	Massimiliano Gentili	Cantina Tollo	s.t.
34	Christophe Rinero	Cofidis	s.t.
35	Maurizio Fondriest	Cofidis	s.t.
36	Stéphane Barthe	Casino	s.t.
37	Andrea Ferrigato	Vitalicio Seguros	s.t.
38	Franco Ballerini	Mapei-Bricobi	s.t.
39	Francisco Cabello	Kelme-Costa Blanca	s.t.
40	Michael Boogerd	Rabobank	s.t.
41	Victor Moratilla	Estepona en Marcha-Cafes Toscaf	s.t.
42	José Vicente Garcia	Banesto	s.t.
43	Alessandro Spezialetti	Riso Scotti	s.t.
44	Giuliano Figueras	Mapei-Bricobi	s.t.
45	Kurt Van De Wouwer	Lotto-Mobistar-Isoglass	s.t.
46	Andrei Tchmil	Lotto-Mobistar-Isoglass	s.t.
47	Álvaro González de Galdeano	Euskaltel-Euskadi	s.t.
48	Jose Ramon Gonzalez	Euskaltel-Euskadi	s.t.
49	Simone Borgheresi	Mercatone Uno-Bianchi	s.t.
50	Pascal Hervé	Festina-Lotus	s.t.
51	Oscar Pellicioli	Mercatone Uno-Bianchi	s.t.
52	Oscar Pozzi	Asics-C.G.A.	s.t.
53	José Javier Gomez	Kelme-Costa Blanca	s.t.
54	Melchior Mauri Prat	O.N.C.E.	s.t.
55	Cesar Solaun Solana	Banesto	s.t.
56	Francisco Javier Mauleon	O.N.C.E.	s.t.
57	Filippo Simeoni	Asics-C.G.A.	s.t.
58	Luis Perez Rodriguez	O.N.C.E.	s.t.
59	Laurent Jalabert	O.N.C.E.	s.t.
60	Michele Bartoli	Asics-C.G.A.	5'07"
61	Luca Scinto	Asics-C.G.A.	s.t.
62	Erik Dekker	Rabobank	s.t.
63	Filippo Baldo	Ballan	8'48"
64	Tyler Hamilton	US Postal Service	s.t.
65	David Tani	Asics-C.G.A.	s.t.
66	Dmitri Konyshev	Mercatone Uno-Bianchi	10'54"
67	Íñigo Chaurreau	Euskaltel-Euskadi	11'17"
68	Christian Henn	Deutsche Telekom	s.t.
69	Leonardo Guidi	Polti	s.t.
70	Mirko Crepaldi	Polti	s.t.
71	David Garcia Markina	Vitalicio Seguros	s.t.
72	Oscar Freire Gomez	Vitalicio Seguros	s.t.
73	Michael Blaudzun	Deutsche Telekom	s.t.
74	Christophe Agnolutto	Casino	s.t.
75	Matias Cagigas Amedo	Estepona en Marcha-Cafes Toscaf	s.t.
76	Bruno Cenghialta	Riso Scotti	s.t.
77	Nicola Loda	Ballan	s.t.
78	Claus Michael Møller	TVM-Farm Frites	s.t.
79	Haimar Zubeldia	Euskaltel-Euskadi	s.t.
80	Rolf Aldag	Deutsche Telekom	s.t.
81	Igor González de Galdeano	Euskaltel-Euskadi	s.t.
82	Fabio Baldato	Riso Scotti	s.t.
83	Koos Moerenhout	Rabobank	s.t.
84	Alberto Lopez De Munain	Euskaltel-Euskadi	s.t.
85	Pascal Chanteur	Casino	s.t.
86	Fabrice Gougot	Casino	s.t.
87	Laurent Madouas	Lotto-Mobistar-Isoglass	s.t.
88	Angel Edo Alsina	Kelme-Costa Blanca	s.t.
89	Roberto Heras	Kelme-Costa Blanca	s.t.
90	Amilcare Tronca	Ballan	s.t.
91	Jörg Jaksche	Polti	s.t.
92	Paul Van Hyfte	Lotto-Mobistar-Isoglass	s.t.
93	Laurent Dufaux	Festina-Lotus	s.t.
94	Wladimir Belli	Festina-Lotus	s.t.
95	Kevin Livingston	Cofidis	s.t.
96	Nico Mattan	Mapei-Bricobi	s.t.
97	Francesco Frattini	Deutsche Telekom	s.t.
98	Ivan Gotti	Saeco-Estro	s.t.
99	Geert Van Bondt	TVM-Farm Frites	s.t.
100	Alexandre Gontchenkov	Ballan	s.t.
101	Lance Armstrong	US Postal Service	s.t.
102	Rik Verbrugghe	Lotto-Mobistar-Isoglass	s.t.
103	Magnus Bäckstedt	Crédit Agricole	s.t.
104	Philipp Buschor	Saeco-Estro	s.t.
105	Roberto Petito	Saeco-Estro	s.t.
106	Bo Hamburger	Casino	s.t.
107	Andrei Teteriouk	Lotto-Mobistar-Isoglass	s.t.
108	Stefano Zanini	Mapei-Bricobi	s.t.
109	Dario Frigo	Saeco-Estro	s.t.
110	Michele Coppolillo	Asics-C.G.A.	s.t.
111	Geert Verheyen	Lotto-Mobistar-Isoglass	s.t.
112	Aart Vierhouten	Rabobank	15'58"
113	Stuart O'Grady	Crédit Agricole	s.t.
114	Eddy Mazzoleni	Saeco-Estro	s.t.
115	Marco Velo	Mercatone Uno-Bianchi	s.t.
116	Maarten Den Bakker	Rabobank	s.t.
117	Sergio Barbero	Mercatone Uno-Bianchi	s.t.
118	Germano Pierdomenico	Cantina Tollo	s.t.
119	Stefano Garzelli	Mercatone Uno-Bianchi	s.t.
120	David Etxebarria	O.N.C.E.	s.t.
121	Emmanuel Magnien	La Française des Jeux	s.t.
122	Peter Van Petegem	TVM-Farm Frites	s.t.
123	Inaki Aiarzaguena	Euskaltel-Euskadi	s.t.
124	Roberto Laiseka	Euskaltel-Euskadi	s.t.
125	Marcelino Garcia	O.N.C.E.	16'54"
126	Juan Carlos Vicario	Estepona en Marcha-Cafes Toscaf	s.t.
127	Arnaud Pretot	Crédit Agricole	s.t.
128	Cédric Vasseur	Crédit Agricole	s.t.
129	Marc Lotz	Rabobank	s.t.
130	Jose Francisco Jarque	Estepona en Marcha-Cafes Toscaf	s.t.
131	Stéphane Pétilleau	Crédit Agricole	s.t.
132	Francisco Javier Cerezo	Estepona en Marcha-Cafes Toscaf	s.t.