There Vuelta in Españaoften indicated simply as La Vueltais a cycling stages race, the last of the great laps by birth and location in the calendar after the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France. It is played in Spain every year between the month of August and that of September within three weeks, with a milestone of the last stage traditionally placed in the capital Madrid. This year is scheduled the 80th edition from Saturday 23 August (with First four stages in Piedmontit is a first time for Italy) to Sunday 14 September.
One of the most relevant characteristics of Vuelta is its ability to innovate the path, introducing explosive and strategic stages, new arrivals at altitude and spectacular paths that cross the entire Spanish geography. This has made the race a point of reference for emotion and show, and today it is not only a sporting competition, but also a cultural and tourist showcase for the Iberian country. Its evolution consolidated it as one of the most important and strategic races of the cyclismomedial. Let’s find out together its origins and its history.
The Vuelta 2025 starts for the first time in history from Italy: the Italian stages
As happened for the Tour de France, which this year saw the Piedmont protagonist of the “Grand Départ”, also the 4 stages of the “Gran Salida “of the Vuelta 2025 they will involve the Italian territory for the first time in the history of the Spanish race: the 23 August The inaugural stage will start from Turin-Royal Venariawill pass through Turin, with the “km 0”, and will head to Novara on a path of 183 kilometers. The second will begin to Alba (CN) and will end 157 kilometers after a Piedmont lemon (CN), marking the first arrival on the top of the race. The third will take place from San Maurizio Canavese (To) to Ceres (To), for 139 kilometers. The fourth and final Italian stage, arriving in France, will start from Susa (To). Piedmont boasts the merit of being the only region to have hosted all three great departures of the great cycling races.
The origins of the Vuelta a España
Vuelta was born in the same way as the Giro and even before the Tour de France. Or from the intuition and investments of a journalist, named Juan Pujolwhich directing the newspaper “Informaciones” and observing the trend of La Gazzetta dello Sport, in turn financed the Giro, and of “The car”, promoter of the tour, in 1935 He decided to create the race with the aim of increasing the sales of his newspaper. He inserted it on the calendar in mid -spring, in April, facing sunny and diluvi, but above all the competition of the Giro d’Italia. Initially – and except for a few exceptions – the lap of Spain, which until 1955 ran only 9 times, was held in the spring, but but In 1995 it was decided to move the Vuelta in the period between August and September To offer cyclists the opportunity to better prepare the world championships on the road. The first 9 editions were the prerogative of the Spain couple (6) -Belgio (3) while in the tenth, that of 1955, French, of Italian origins, Jean Dotto, imposed himself. The first all -Italian victory dates back to 1956, when the Turin Angelo Conterno put the Spaniard Jesús Their Spanish in line, who took his revenge the following year.
The great champions of the Giro di Spagna
Over the years the Vuelta has been the scene of some historical companies of the greatest protagonists of cycling. For example the masterpiece of Felice Gimondi Dated 1968: the Sedrina champion, at just 25 years old, closed the hat -trick of the great laps (the second as always to conquer the coveted “triple crown” after Jacques Anquetil) after the tour in 1965 and the Giro of 196. The arrival in Madrid, with the number 22, is one of the symbolic photos of Italian cycling. Or the victory of Eddy Merckx of 1973, the only edition in which the Belgian participated by fighting for the three weeks with a bad tonsillitis. Another wonderful story is the “Vuelta stolen” of 1985 by the “master” of the house Pedro Delgado who arrived at the final finish with 36 seconds of advantage over the Scottish Robert Millar: the British press spoke of “The Stolen Vuelta” for the tacit agreement between the Spanish teams not to encourage Millar in the hunt for Delgado, in particular to the stage number 17 (the penultimate) in which he managed to recover seven minutes of margin to the direct opponent. The “stained” poker of the Spaniard has also entered the history of cycling books Roberto Herasthe most winning cyclist in the history of the Iberian competition together with the Slovenian Primaz Roglic. In the last stage of 2005, a positivity to the APO cost him the fourth title and two years of disqualification. In 2012, after a long legal battle, the Spanish Supreme Court canceled the sentence and returned the last victory making him legend.
In recent years, the best contemporary cycling artists have then signed in Madrid: Chris Froome, Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde, Nairo Quintana, Simon Yates, Primaz Roglic and of course ours Vincenzo Nibali (2010) e Fabio Aru (2015). Without forgetting the moving feat in 2013 of the 42 -year -old Yankee by Okinawa Chris Horner, the oldest ever to win a big lap.
The symbol of La Vuelta, or that of the leader, is redSpanish fee of the yellow jersey of the Tour de France and the Rosa of the Giro d’Italia. Since 2010 he has been the leader of the general classification since 2010, although the traditionalists of the Giro di Spagna would like Gold again, a color adopted from 1999 to 2009. Other distinctive rankings are the climber ranking and that of the points ranking, which respectively assign a blue polka dot shirt and a green shirt. There have been and there are also other assigned stitches, such as that of the leader of the intermediate sprint ranking (now abolished) and that for the combined ranking (white shirt), a points system that rewards the best classified cyclist by combining the three main charts (general, points and climbers).
Record of victories and statistics
They were in everything 62 The runners write their name in past 79 editions of the Vuelta held from 1935 to 2024, representing 14 nations. The best interpreters of the history of the race, as already anticipated, are Roberto Heras and Primaz Roglic, both at 4 Triumphs. The Iberian runner, winner in 2000, in 2003, 2004 and 2005, boasts two other placings among the best three (2nd in 2002 and 3rd in 1999), while the Slovenian in addition to the successes signed in 2019, in 2020, in 2021 and 2024, he also collected 3rd place in 2023.
The Spaniard Valverde is the Absolute primer of podiums7: the victory obtained in 2009, the second places of 2006, 2012 and 2019, the thirds of 2003, 2013 and 2014. In total 156 runners placed at least once the best three in the final ranking of the Iberian race.
Spain leads the ranking for nations with 32 statements and 126 podiums overallincluding 52 seconds and 42 third places. Following France with 9 successes, then Belgium with 8 and Italy with 6: conquered by a conternex in 1956, Gimondi in 1968, Battaglin in 1981, Giovannetti in 1990, Nibali in 2010, Aru in 2015.
The Spaniard Delio Rodriguez holds the record of stages won at Vuelta, 39, and of consecutive stages won, 6. The Belgian Freddy Maertens instead has the stages of stages won during an editionthat of 1977, when he won 13 stages.
The younger winner in the history of Vuelta It was the Spaniard Angelino Soler, who in 1961 won at the age of 21 and 166 days. The oldest It is the American Chris Horner, winner in 2013 at the age of 41 and 327 days.
