WorldTour one day racing returned today with the tough Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa and its 223 kilometre long parcours that featured several tough climbs, including the famous Jaizkibel, Erlaitz and Murgil Tontorra. It was fast start to racing as the the clouds loomed over the bunch, with the team particularly active trying to make the day’s breakaway, with Chad Haga and Romain Combaud both in moves that were brought back.

Eventually the elastic snapped and a large 14 rider group got clear, with all Team DSM riders in the peloton, so focus switched to saving as much energy as possible for the difficult finale. As the kilometres ticked by, the heavy rain began to fall and on the Eerlaitz climb the race was all together before more riders attacked. On the following descent the pace stayed high and the peloton split to pieces, with Jai Hindley and Chris Hamilton riding well to make the front split.

With more riders going up the road to form a leading quintet, the peloton eased in pace and heading onto the final climb the leaders had more than enough of an advantage to take the win. Hamilton and Hindley finished within the third chasing group, just over one and a half minutes behind the winner after what was a hard day in the saddle.

“It was a nice day out for us today,” explained Hamilton at the finish. “For a lot of guys this was the first race back after a break so was good to see where the form is at. On a personal note I’m pretty happy with how my race went, being a part of the final but I just didn’t quite have the legs to follow the best on the final climb. It’s also great to see Jai in his way back to his best after a long time off with injury.”

Team DSM coach Michiel Elijzen said: “It was a good race to start with after training period. Not an easy one but I think we managed to put our two protected riders into a good position towards the final and that was the goal. It was always going to be tough to compete for the win but everyone made the most out of it and it’s a good start to the second half of the season.”