Remco Evenepoel has now won the Clásica San Sebastián in 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2026.

His fourth victory moves him clear of Marino Lejarreta as the most successful rider in the race’s history.

The long distance, repeated climbs and selective finale appear almost perfectly designed around his strengths.

This was not a straightforward display of dominance.

A mechanical problem after the Jaizkibel forced Evenepoel to chase back before the decisive climbs, with his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammates helping return him to contention.

He then attacked on the Murgil with 8.7 kilometres remaining. Only Richard Carapaz could follow.

Evenepoel still had enough left to beat Carapaz in the two-rider sprint, winning in a way that required recovery, patience and finishing speed rather than one long solo attack.

That is the obvious argument against calling it Evenepoel’s defining one-day race.

Liège-Bastogne-Liège carries greater prestige, while his Olympic and World Championship victories have delivered far bigger moments.

San Sebastián sits below those races in cycling’s traditional hierarchy.

But a signature race does not necessarily have to be the biggest. It can simply be the event where one rider repeatedly looks most at home.

Evenepoel has won here as a teenage outsider, through a dominant long-range attack and in tightly fought two-rider finishes.

The route has changed and the opposition has changed.

The result has not.

At this point, every future edition he enters begins with the same question: who can stop Remco?

San Sebastián is now Evenepoel’s race.

It may not contain the greatest victory of his career, but no other major one-day event is so consistently linked to him.

Four victories have turned a race that suited him into part of his identity.

His Monuments may define his legacy—but San Sebastián belongs to him.