Tag: cycling history

La Vuelta a España 2023 is about to begin, in Barcelona, on Saturday August 26th. Here you have some interesting facts about La Vuelta's history. Early years 1) The organizers. In early 1935, Clemente López Doriga in collaboration with Juan Pujol, director of newspaper Informaciones, organized the first Vuelta ciclista a España, with 14 stages and  3.431 km total. The newspaper Diario YA took the organization in 1945, but in 1955 went to another newspaper, El Correo Español/El Pueblo Vasco,. This one organized La Vuelta until 1979. The company Unipublic is in charge since then. 2) The first winner was the Belgian Gustaaf Deloor in 1935 after an epic battle with the Spaniard Mariano Cañardo, who ended in second place. One year later, the Belgian Deloor repeated the victory. After that edition, la Vuelta was suspended until 1941 because of the Spanish Civil War. 3) Until 1995, la Vuelta was disputed in April and May. Since 1995 it is raced between August and September. La Vuelta a España was not disputed from 1937 to 1940 because of the Spanish civil war, and between 1943-1944 because of the II World War. In 1949 and from 1951 to 1954 it was also suspended. Overall victories and stage wins 4) More victories in General classification in Vuelta a España. The Spaniard Roberto Heras has 4 GC wins (2000, 2003, 2004 y 2005). The swiss Tony Rominger has 3 GC wins (1992, 1993 y 1994) tied with Alberto Contador (2008, 2012 y 2014) and Primoz Roglic (2019-2020-2021). 5) The youngest cyclist to win La Vuelta is Angelino Soler, who won La Vuelta in 1961 being 21 years old. The oldest to win La Vuelta was the american Chris Horner in 2013, being 41 years old. This is not only the record in La Vuelta,