Skip to content
Home » La Vuelta history

La Vuelta history

Fausto Coppi 1959

Fausto Coppi and the Vuelta a España

Unlike the other two grand tours with a history started before the first world war, the first Vuelta a Espana was held in 1935. It was a spring race until the 1990s, right before (or sometimes almost at the same time as) the Giro d’Italia. Also, for almost two decades, it was really unpredictable, when the race will be held or not. It’s little wonder, that many of the biggest stars of the first half or the middle of the 20th century never competed Vuelta. But Fausto Coppi did. He participated the race in 1959 with his own Tricofilina-Coppi team and abandoned it only on the 15th stage (of a total of 17 stages). The… Read More »Fausto Coppi and the Vuelta a España

Eddy Merckx winning the Vuelta a Espana in 1973

Eddy Merckx’s results at Vuelta a España

Eddy Merckx rode Vuelta a España only once during his extremely successful carreer, in 1973.  He won the race, managed to achieve the first ever Vuelta-Giro double in the history of road cycling races, also became the third cyclist after Jacques Anquetil and Felice Gimondi, who has won all the three grand tours at least once. The 28th edition of Vuelta Cyclista a España was held between 26 April and 13 May 1973. Merckx won six stages (3 of them were individual time trials).  He took the overall lead only after the 11th stage. The biggest rivals of Merckx were Luis Ocaña ( who that year, with the absence of Merckx would win the Tour… Read More »Eddy Merckx’s results at Vuelta a España