Lucy Kennedy wins women's Clásica San Sebastián with double attack following puncture

The Australian took victory in the first ever women's edition of the race

Lucy Kennedy wins Clásica San Sebastián 2019 (Amaia Zabalo/Getty)
(Image credit: Getty Images)
By Jonny Long
published

Lucy Kennedy (Mitchelton-Scott) took victory in the inaugural women's edition of the Clásica San Sebastián.

The Australian had to attack twice after a puncture neutered her first attack, eventually finishing 20 seconds ahead of Janneke Ensing (WNT-Rotor Pro Cycling) in second and Pauliena Rooijakkers (CCC-Liv) in third.

Her team-mates Annemiek van Vleuten and Amanda Spratt finished nearly five minutes down, in 16th and 18th place respectively.

With 35km to go a chase group were 15 seconds behind when Kennedy punctured, dragging her back as Ensing surged forward and opened up a gap of more than a minute with 20km to go.

Team-mate Georgia Williams joined Kennedy in the chase group, the New Zealander working hard to bring the gap back to within 30 seconds.

Kennedy then reeled in and passed Ensing on the final climb of the day, which reached gradients of 16 per cent, pulling clear with 8km to go and maintaining her advantage to cross the finish line first.

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Results

Women's Clásica San Sebastián 2019

1. Lucy Kennedy (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, in 3-38-04

2. Janneke Ensing (Ned) WNT-Rotor, at 23 seconds

3. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) CCC-Liv, at 1-04

4. Anastasiia Pliaskina (Rus) Cogeas-Mettler, at same time

5. Edwige Pittel (Fra) Cogeas-Mettler, at 1-06

6. Lourdes Oyarbide (Esp) Movistar, at 1-12

7. Ahreum Na (Kor) Alé Cipollini, at 1-38

8. Kathrin Hammes (Ger) WNT-Rotor

9. Hanna Nilsson (Swe) BTC City Ljubljana, both at same time

10. Alessia Vigilia (Ita) Valcar Cylance, at 2-04

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Jonny Long

Hi. I'm Cycling Weekly's Weekend Editor. I like writing offbeat features and eating too much bread when working out on the road at bike races.


Before joining Cycling Weekly I worked at The Tab and I've also written for Vice, Time Out, and worked freelance for The Telegraph (I know, but I needed the money at the time so let me live).


I also worked for ITV Cycling between 2011-2018 on their Tour de France and Vuelta a España coverage. Sometimes I'd be helping the producers make the programme and other times I'd be getting the lunches. Just in case you were wondering - Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen had the same ham sandwich every day, it was great.

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