As one of the three Grand Tours in cycling, the Vuelta a Espana holds a definite place of prominence in the hierarchy of prestigious races. Nevertheless, it is often seen as the lesser of the three three-week races for a variety of reasons. For one, it is the youngest of the three Grand Tours. Though it first took place in 1935, the Spanish Civil War and World War II prevented it from becoming well entrenched until 1955. And the fact that it has floated around on the racing calendar, sometimes taking place in spring and sometimes in late summer, has made it seem like the less established, younger sibling of the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France.
But the Vuelta is imbued with an anarchic streak combined with some of the most brutal climbing in all of Europe, which frequently results in some of the best racing of the entire year.
1935 – Year Zero of the Vuleta a Espana
Inspired by the success that the newspaper L’Auto had sponsoring the Tour de France and La Gazzetta dello Sport had with the Giro d’Italia, retired cyclist Clemente López Doriga and the director of the daily newspaper Informaciones, Juan Pujol, founded the Vuelta a Espana in 1935 with the hope of igniting a race to rival the Tour, while also boosting the circulation of the Informaciones newspaper.
The first year had only 14 stages but covered a whopping 3400 km with each stage averaging about 240 km. The following edition in 1936 took place in the more familiar 22 stage format but added nearly 1000 km to the route. Not certain how excited the 50+ participants felt about that. Interestingly, the first two editions were won not by a Spaniard, but by a Belgian, Gustaaf Deloor. Deloor is not a name quite as well known as some other early winners of the Grand Tours, but he had an interesting life and career that was in a way representative of the difficult times in which he lived and competed.
He was able to race professionally until 1939 when he had to join the Belgian army in the fight against Hitler. After being captured by the Germans in May of 1940, Deloor spent the rest of the war in a prisoner camp and returned to a devastated home in the late 40s. He emigrated to the United States and eventually found a job working at the Cape Canaveral aerospace center. He returned to Belgium in 1980 and died in 2002 at age 88.
Like so many young men of his generation, his life was completely upended by war. And a cycling career that had begun with so much promise, ended prematurely and abruptly.
Vuelta a Espana during Spanish Civil War
Spain was an early battleground in Europe ahead of the outbreak of World War II. The Spanish Civil War started in 1936, which made it impossible for the Vuelta to continue in 1937. The countryside and population were ravaged in the battle between the Republicans and the Nationalists. At the time, it was seen by the international community as a sort of dress rehearsal for the coming war against the fascists in Germany. But the fighting was in many ways much more bitter and devastating than what the rest of Europe would suffer in the coming years.
Eventually, the Nationalists led by General Francisco Franco won the war and controlled the country with an iron grip until his death in 1975. The fact that the Nationalists had been supported with arms and fighters from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy meant that Spain, though officially neutral during World War II, did in fact collaborate with the Axis allies.
From an international relations point of view, it was a huge blow to the fight for Republican freedom against fascist dictators. From the point of view of professional Spanish cycling, it meant that the Vuelta a Espana was able to restart in 1941, this time with a peloton made up almost completely of Spanish cyclists.
The instability caused by World War II
Spanish cycling didn’t entirely escape the impact of World War II, since no race was held in 1943 and 1944. It was a time of great privation and pain for the Spanish community. So when the event kicked off again in 1945, it was again a reduced peloton made up almost entirely of Spanish riders. The late 40s saw a race nearly every year, but it was skipped again in 1949 and also missed in 1951-1954. It was only in 1955, when the Basque newspaper El Correo Español-El Pueblo Vasco began sponsoring the race, that the Vuelta has not missed an edition.
Considering the fraught relationship between the Basque region and the Spanish government in the later part of the 20th century, it is an interesting testament to how normal the relations were in the mid-part of the century that a major national cycling event was actually controlled by a Basque newspaper. From 1955 until 1968, El Correo Español-El Pueblo Vasco successfully stabilized and ran the Vuelta as a three week event with a wide selection of European champions including Rudi Altig, Jacques Anquetil, Raymond Poulidor, Jan Janssen, and Felice Gimondi in addition to homegrown champions like Angelino Soler, Jesus Loroño, and Antonio Suárez.
Inevitably, historical and political grievances bubbled over and in 1968, the Basque separatist group ETA, who had originally been founded as a student’s group promoting Basque culture, changed to a political and paramilitary movement prepared to use violence. Among their early violent actions was to bomb the 15th stage of the 1968 Vuelta, which had to be canceled, though no casualties resulted.
Luis Ocaña heralds a new era of Spanish greats
In spite of the increased friction in national politics of Franco Spain, the 1970s were a golden time for the Vuelta and Spanish cycling. Luis Ocaña emerged on the scene as a victor of the 1970 Vuelta and then went on to win the Tour de France three years later. José Manuel Fuente, also a multi-grand tour winner, took his first Vuelta a Espana in 1972 and a second in 1974.
Non-Spanish winners in the 1970s included the best in the world like Eddy Merckx, Joop Zoetemelk, and a young Bernard Hinault who won his first grand tour at the Vuelta in April of 1978, just a few months before taking his first Tour de France.
Though for Hinault it was the beginning of an era, for El Correo Español-El Pueblo Vasco, it was the end of one since its support of the Vuelta ended in 1979. The newspaper had been facing critical financial shortfalls for some time, and the future of the race was temporarily in limbo. The newspaper’s role in the history of the Vuelta has been mostly forgotten by modern audiences, but the support of the Basque paper had been essential to pull the race out of the post-war chaos that had typified the on again-off again Vuelta editions between 1935 and 1955.
Enter Unipublic as organizer
Unipublic was a sporting event organizer founded in 1975. They took over control of organizing the Vuelta in 1979 and continued in that role until 2008 when the French group Amaury Sport Organization (A.S.O.), organizers of the Tour de France, acquired them.
The event under Unipublic still underwent a certain amount of flux. Its position on the race calendar was not as solidified as the Tour (July) and the Giro (May) had been. Sometimes it would take place in April or even early May and then it switched to late August and September.
The spring place on the calendar worked well perhaps from a weather point of view, but its potential to clash with the Giro and other spring classics meant that the rider lineup was frequently compromised. For instance, 1985 Vuelta winner Pedro Delgado chose to ride the 1988 Giro instead of the Vuelta, since the two races overlapped that year.
The routes were also sometimes all over the place. Some Vueltas had an unspectacular amount of climbing and longer time trials, which allowed non-pure climbers like Sean Kelly to win the event in 1988. And then other editions would have insane amounts of climbing that would find the riders cursing at the organizers.
Great for TV viewers
When the Vuelta changed from its April slot to September in 1995, it quickly became a prime preparation race for riders looking to peak for the World Championships. As the third grand tour of the season, it also earned the reputation of being the last chance saloon for riders who had had poor Tours de France or poor seasons overall. Riders who would be without a contract at the end of the season would often take crazy fliers on stages so they could get a result and win a new contract, even if their attacks were against team orders.
Since the race takes place so late in the season, there inevitably is a large number of riders who would rather already be on vacation, so the mix of hyper motivated and super reluctant participants makes for quite a lively event.
Though there was some fear when the ASO took over the event that the Vuelta would lose some of the uniqueness and originality that had set it apart from the Tour and the Giro, those fears have mostly been unfounded. The Vuelta consistently offers up the most challenging climbing, super enthusiastic fans, and wild racing situations.
If you’ve been watching the 2024 edition, you’ll have a good idea what we mean. Riders can lose time on stage, get into a break two days later, jump 6 minutes on the GC and take the race lead. For us neutral fans, or even if you have a favorite to win, the entertainment value never flags with the Vuelta.
