Origins The first races in Spain were run at the national level and were promoted by the bicycle manufacturers from
Eibar. Consequently, the tour was Eibar – Madrid – Eibar, and called the Grand Prix of the Republic. Preset = TimeVertical_OneBar_UnitYear ImageSize = width:180 height:2000 PlotArea = bottom:350 left:40 Period = from:1935 till:2026 ScaleMajor = start:1935 increment:5 ScaleMinor = start:1935 increment:1 TimeAxis = order:reverse Colors = id:canvas value:rgb(0.976,0.976,0.976) id:Spain value:rgb(1,0.3,0.3) legend:→_Spain id:France value:rgb(0.96,0.96,0.3) legend:→_France id:Belgium value:rgb(1,0.5,1) legend:→_Belgium id:Italy value:rgb(0.1,0.95,0.2) legend:→_Italy id:Switzerland value:rgb(0.8,0.8,1) legend:→_Switzerland id:Slovenia value:rgb(0.2,0.7,0.1) legend:→_Slovenia id:GBR value:rgb(0.9,0.3,0.7) legend:→_Great_Britain id:Germany value:rgb(1,0.6,0.6) legend:→_Germany id:Colombia value:rgb(0,0.8,0.8) legend:→_Colombia id:Netherlands value:rgb(0.9,0.5,0.2) legend:→_Netherlands id:US value:rgb(0.5,0.5,1) legend:→_United_States id:Russia value:rgb(0.8,0.4,0.8) legend:→_Russia id:Ireland value:rgb(0.1,0.6,0.3) legend:→_Ireland id:Kazakhstan value:rgb(0.7,0.7,0.8) legend:→_Kazakhstan id:Denmark value:rgb(1,0.3,0.3) legend:→_Denmark id:War/Cancel value:rgb(1,1,1) id:None value:rgb(1,1,1) id:linemark value:gray(0.8) id:linemark2 value:gray(0.9) id:legend value:gray(0.5) BackgroundColors = canvas:canvas Legend = orientation:vertical columns:1 top:278 left: 45 PlotData = shift:(20,3) mark:(line,linemark) anchor:till from:1935 till:1936 text:"
Gustaaf Deloor" color:Belgium from:1936 till:1937 text:"Gustaaf Deloor 2" color:Belgium from:1937 till:1941 text:"
Spanish Civil War" color:War/Cancel shift:(30, 27) from:1941 till:1942 text:"
Julián Berrendero" color:Spain from:1942 till:1943 text:"Julián Berrendero 2" color:Spain from:1943 till:1945 text:"
World War II" color:War/Cancel shift:(30, 12) from:1945 till:1946 text:"
Delio Rodríguez" color:Spain from:1946 till:1947 text:"
Dalmacio Langarica" color:Spain from:1947 till:1948 text:"
Edward Van Dijck" color:Belgium from:1948 till:1949 text:"
Bernardo Ruiz" color:Spain mark:(line,linemark2) from:1949 till:1950 text:"Race not held" color:War/Cancel shift:(30, 3) from:1950 till:1951 text:"
Emilio Rodríguez" color:Spain from:1951 till:1955 text:"Races not held" color:War/Cancel shift:(30, 27) from:1955 till:1956 text:"
Jean Dotto" color:France from:1956 till:1957 text:"
Angelo Conterno" color:Italy from:1957 till:1958 text:"
Jesús Loroño" color:Spain from:1958 till:1959 text:"
Jean Stablinski" color:France from:1959 till:1960 text:"
Antonio Suárez" color:Spain from:1960 till:1961 text:"
Frans De Mulder" color:Belgium from:1961 till:1962 text:"
Angelino Soler" color:Spain from:1962 till:1963 text:"
Rudi Altig" color:Germany from:1963 till:1964 text:"
Jacques Anquetil" color:France from:1964 till:1965 text:"
Raymond Poulidor" color:France from:1965 till:1966 text:"
Rolf Wolfshohl" color:Germany from:1966 till:1967 text:"
Francisco Gabica" color:Spain from:1967 till:1968 text:"
Jan Janssen" color:Netherlands from:1968 till:1969 text:"
Felice Gimondi" color:Italy from:1969 till:1970 text:"
Roger Pingeon" color:France from:1970 till:1971 text:"
Luis Ocaña" color:Spain from:1971 till:1972 text:"
Ferdinand Bracke" color:Belgium from:1972 till:1973 text:"
José Manuel Fuente" color:Spain from:1973 till:1974 text:"
Eddy Merckx" color:Belgium from:1974 till:1975 text:"José Manuel Fuente 2" color:Spain from:1975 till:1976 text:"
Agustín Tamames" color:Spain from:1976 till:1977 text:"
José Pesarrodona" color:Spain from:1977 till:1978 text:"
Freddy Maertens" color:Belgium from:1978 till:1979 text:"
Bernard Hinault" color:France from:1979 till:1980 text:"
Joop Zoetemelk" color:Netherlands from:1980 till:1981 text:"
Faustino Rupérez" color:Spain from:1981 till:1982 text:"
Giovanni Battaglin" color:Italy from:1982 till:1983 text:"
Marino Lejarreta" color:Spain from:1983 till:1984 text:"Bernard Hinault 2" color:France from:1984 till:1985 text:"
Eric Caritoux" color:France from:1985 till:1986 text:"
Pedro Delgado" color:Spain from:1986 till:1987 text:"
Álvaro Pino" color:Spain from:1987 till:1988 text:"
Luis Herrera" color:Colombia from:1988 till:1989 text:"
Sean Kelly" color:Ireland from:1989 till:1990 text:"Pedro Delgado 2" color:Spain from:1990 till:1991 text:"
Marco Giovannetti" color:Italy from:1991 till:1992 text:"
Melchor Mauri" color:Spain from:1992 till:1993 text:"
Tony Rominger" color:Switzerland from:1993 till:1994 text:"Tony Rominger 2" color:Switzerland from:1994 till:1995 text:"Tony Rominger 3" color:Switzerland from:1995 till:1996 text:"
Laurent Jalabert" color:France from:1996 till:1997 text:"
Alex Zülle" color:Switzerland from:1997 till:1998 text:"Alex Zülle 2" color:Switzerland from:1998 till:1999 text:"
Abraham Olano" color:Spain from:1999 till:2000 text:"
Jan Ullrich" color:Germany from:2000 till:2001 text:"
Roberto Heras" color:Spain from:2001 till:2002 text:"
Ángel Casero" color:Spain from:2002 till:2003 text:"
Aitor González" color:Spain from:2003 till:2004 text:"Roberto Heras 2" color:Spain from:2004 till:2005 text:"Roberto Heras 3" color:Spain from:2005 till:2006 text:"Roberto Heras 4" color:Spain from:2006 till:2007 text:"
Alexandre Vinokourov" color:Kazakhstan from:2007 till:2008 text:"
Denis Menchov" color:Russia from:2008 till:2009 text:"
Alberto Contador" color:Spain from:2009 till:2010 text:"
Alejandro Valverde" color:Spain from:2010 till:2011 text:"
Vincenzo Nibali" color:Italy from:2011 till:2012 text:"
Chris Froome" color:GBR from:2012 till:2013 text:"Alberto Contador 2" color:Spain from:2013 till:2014 text:"
Chris Horner" color:US from:2014 till:2015 text:"Alberto Contador 3" color:Spain from:2015 till:2016 text:"
Fabio Aru" color:Italy from:2016 till:2017 text:"
Nairo Quintana" color:Colombia from:2017 till:2018 text:"Chris Froome 2" color:GBR from:2018 till:2019 text:"
Simon Yates" color:GBR from:2019 till:2020 text:"
Primož Roglič" color:Slovenia from:2020 till:2021 text:"Primož Roglič 2" color:Slovenia from:2021 till:2022 text:"Primož Roglič 3" color:Slovenia from:2022 till:2023 text:"
Remco Evenepoel" color:Belgium from:2023 till:2024 text:"
Sepp Kuss" color:US from:2024 till:2025 text:"Primož Roglič 4" color:Slovenia from:2025 till:2026 text:"
Jonas Vingegaard" color:Denmark shift:(-10,-4) anchor:middle align:left width:30 textcolor:black from:1935 till:1936 text:BEL color:Belgium from:1936 till:1937 text:BEL color:Belgium from:1941 till:1942 text:SPA color:Spain from:1942 till:1943 text:SPA color:Spain from:1945 till:1946 text:SPA color:Spain from:1946 till:1947 text:SPA color:Spain from:1947 till:1948 text:BEL color:Belgium from:1948 till:1949 text:SPA color:Spain mark:(line,linemark2) from:1950 till:1951 text:SPA color:Spain from:1955 till:1956 text:FRA color:France from:1956 till:1957 text:ITA color:Italy from:1957 till:1958 text:SPA color:Spain from:1958 till:1959 text:FRA color:France from:1959 till:1960 text:SPA color:Spain from:1960 till:1961 text:BEL color:Belgium from:1961 till:1962 text:SPA color:Spain from:1962 till:1963 text:GER color:Germany from:1963 till:1964 text:FRA color:France from:1964 till:1965 text:FRA color:France from:1965 till:1966 text:GER color:Germany from:1966 till:1967 text:SPA color:Spain from:1967 till:1968 text:NED color:Netherlands from:1968 till:1969 text:ITA color:Italy from:1969 till:1970 text:FRA color:France from:1970 till:1971 text:SPA color:Spain from:1971 till:1972 text:BEL color:Belgium from:1972 till:1973 text:SPA color:Spain from:1973 till:1974 text:BEL color:Belgium from:1974 till:1975 text:SPA color:Spain from:1975 till:1976 text:SPA color:Spain from:1976 till:1977 text:SPA color:Spain from:1977 till:1978 text:BEL color:Belgium from:1978 till:1979 text:FRA color:France from:1979 till:1980 text:NED color:Netherlands from:1980 till:1981 text:SPA color:Spain from:1981 till:1982 text:ITA color:Italy from:1982 till:1983 text:SPA color:Spain from:1983 till:1984 text:FRA color:France from:1984 till:1985 text:FRA color:France from:1985 till:1986 text:SPA color:Spain from:1986 till:1987 text:SPA color:Spain from:1987 till:1988 text:COL color:Colombia from:1988 till:1989 text:IRL color:Ireland from:1989 till:1990 text:SPA color:Spain from:1990 till:1991 text:ITA color:Italy from:1991 till:1992 text:SPA color:Spain from:1992 till:1993 text:SWI color:Switzerland from:1993 till:1994 text:SWI color:Switzerland from:1994 till:1995 text:SWI color:Switzerland from:1995 till:1996 text:FRA color:France from:1996 till:1997 text:SWI color:Switzerland from:1997 till:1998 text:SWI color:Switzerland from:1998 till:1999 text:SPA color:Spain from:1999 till:2000 text:GER color:Germany from:2000 till:2001 text:SPA color:Spain from:2001 till:2002 text:SPA color:Spain from:2002 till:2003 text:SPA color:Spain from:2003 till:2004 text:SPA color:Spain from:2004 till:2005 text:SPA color:Spain from:2005 till:2006 text:SPA color:Spain from:2006 till:2007 text:KAZ color:Kazakhstan from:2007 till:2008 text:RUS color:Russia from:2008 till:2009 text:SPA color:Spain from:2009 till:2010 text:SPA color:Spain from:2010 till:2011 text:ITA color:Italy from:2011 till:2012 text:GBR color:GBR from:2012 till:2013 text:SPA color:Spain from:2013 till:2014 text:USA color:US from:2014 till:2015 text:SPA color:Spain from:2015 till:2016 text:ITA color:Italy from:2016 till:2017 text:COL color:Colombia from:2017 till:2018 text:GBR color:GBR from:2018 till:2019 text:GBR color:GBR from:2019 till:2020 text:SLO color:Slovenia from:2020 till:2021 text:SLO color:Slovenia from:2021 till:2022 text:SLO color:Slovenia from:2022 till:2023 text:BEL color:Belgium from:2023 till:2024 text:USA color:US from:2024 till:2025 text:SLO color:Slovenia from:2025 till:2026 text:DEN color:Denmark TextData = pos:(15,308) tabs:(0-left,35-left,150-right) text:^Key^ fontsize:M text:^Abbr.^ Country^Wins fontsize:S textcolor:legend text:^SPA^ ^32 lineheight:17 text:^FRA^ ^9 lineheight:17 text:^BEL^ ^8 lineheight:17 text:^ITA^ ^6 lineheight:17 text:^SWI^ ^5 lineheight:17 text:^SLO^ ^4 lineheight:17 text:^GBR^ ^3 lineheight:17 text:^GER^ ^3 lineheight:17 text:^COL^ ^2 lineheight:17 text:^NED^ ^2 lineheight:17 text:^USA^ ^2 lineheight:17 text:^RUS^ ^1 lineheight:17 text:^IRL^ ^1 lineheight:17 text:^KAZ^ ^1 lineheight:17 text:^DEN^ ^1 lineheight:17
1935–1960 In early 1935, former cyclist Clemente López Doriga, in collaboration with Juan Pujol, director of the daily newspaper
Informaciones, organized the Vuelta a España, The inaugural event saw 50 entrants face a 3,411 km (2,119 mi.) course over only 14 stages, averaging over 240 km (149 mi.) per stage. It was inspired by the success of the Tours in France and Italy, and the boost they brought to the circulations of their sponsoring newspapers (''
L'Auto and La Gazzetta dello Sport respectively); Pujol of instigated the race to increase Informaciones'''s circulation. The first stage took the riders from Madrid to
Valladolid. That year saw the first great duel in the history of the Vuelta, between Belgium's
Gustaaf Deloor, who ultimately won, and
Mariano Cañardo, Spanish runner-up. The second edition of the Vuelta, finally held despite the delicate political situation, was also marked by the Deloor repeat, who this time held the lead from the first day to the last. The 1936 edition remains the longest winning finish time of the Vuelta in 150:07:54, the race consisted of 22 stages with a total length of 4,407 km. Gustaaf finished first and his older brother
Alfons finished second overall. , winner of the first two editions of the Vuelta in 1935 and 1936 After the first two editions, the Spanish race suffered a hiatus because of the
Spanish Civil War. In
1941, the Vuelta resumed competition with an almost entirely Spanish peloton and very little foreign representation. That year the first time trial was held in the Vuelta.
Julián Berrendero was proclaimed the winner, and he recaptured the title the next year. In addition, Berrendero was King of the Mountains for three consecutive years. With
World War II and the precarious economic situation, there was another break in the running of the Vuelta a España. In 1945, the Journal took over organization of the race and competition resumed, although again with few foreign competitors in the peloton. On this occasion,
Delio Rodríguez took the final victory. That year also introduced the points classification, but this was not stable until 1955. Four editions were run until 1950. Subsequently, there was no Vuelta until 1955, when it was organized by the Basque newspaper
El Correo Español-El Pueblo Vasco. That year
Laurent Jalabert won all classifications, the second time this happened in the Vuelta (Rominger had done so in 1993). The Frenchman was also a four-time winner of the points classification, matching the previous record set by Sean Kelly in the '80s. In
1997, the tour started for the first time in a foreign country. They began in
Lisbon, on the occasion of
Expo '98. The ascent of the
Alto de L'Angliru was part of a stage for the first time in 1999, with the victory of
José María Jiménez, four-time winner of the mountains classification. The reputation of the climb grew rapidly because of its demanding nature.
2000–2010 The first editions of the 2000s were marked by the dominance of
Roberto Heras, who achieved victory on three occasions, and in
2005 did it for the fourth time. However, as happened with
Ángel Arroyo in 1982, Heras was disqualified days after the end of the competition after testing positive in a doping test, this time for use of
EPO. This positive development was later ratified by the counter-analysis and Heras was stripped of his title, benefiting the Russian cyclist
Denis Menchov until 2012, when the Spanish Courts overturned the positive test and re-awarded the win to Heras. In 2006
Alexander Vinokourov won after a struggle with the then leader of the
UCI Pro Tour,
Alejandro Valverde. In the 2007 edition Denis Menchov again clinched the overall victory by more than three minutes over the Spanish cyclists
Carlos Sastre and
Samuel Sánchez. In June 2008, French company
Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), who organize the
Tour de France, announced it had bought 49% of Unipublic. In 2008, the winner was the Spaniard Alberto Contador, who also won
that year's Giro d'Italia, and became the first Spaniard to win all three Grand Tours. In 2009, the Vuelta began in Drenthe, Netherlands, continuing through Belgium and Germany. The final winner was Alejandro Valverde, who adopted a conservative stance without winning any stage and sprinting in the final meters to achieve bonuses. His main rivals were Samuel Sánchez (second place),
Cadel Evans (third),
Ivan Basso,
Robert Gesink and
Ezequiel Mosquera. All of them suffered critical falls or punctures such as Evans in Monachil.
2010–2018 on
Paseo del Prado in
Madrid Vincenzo Nibali won the
2010 edition without winning a stage, thanks to consistent high placings on summit stage finishes and the race's two time trials. He had inherited the race lead after
Igor Antón was forced to abandon after crashing on stage 14. Though Nibali lost the race lead to
Joaquim Rodríguez, he later regained it on the final time trial. This marked his first grand tour victory. The
2011 Vuelta was the 66th edition of the race and was the first Vuelta in 33 years that visited the
Basque Country. The 33-year absence from the region was due to fear of
political protests. The victory was originally awarded to
Juan José Cobo who had a race-winning margin of just 13 seconds over Briton
Chris Froome. Neither rider had been marked as a pre-race favourite, and both had gone to the Vuelta as
domestiques for their team leaders: Cobo for
Denis Menchov, and Froome for
Bradley Wiggins; their team leaders originally finished 5th and 3rd respectively. The race was the first time that two Britons had stood on the podium of a Grand Tour, and Froome's second-place finish equalled the highest placing by a British rider in a Grand tour, Pippa York finishing second in the race in 1985 and 1986, until Wiggins won the
Tour de France the following year. In 2019 Cobo's win was annulled for doping violations, and the race awarded to Froome. In
2012, the race was won for the second time by
Alberto Contador of , taking his first overall victory since returning from a doping suspension. Contador, who won the seventeenth stage of the race after a solo attack, won the general classification by 1' 16" over runner-up
Alejandro Valverde of the team. Completing an all-Spanish podium,
Joaquim Rodríguez finished the race third overall, 21 seconds behind Valverde and 1' 37" behind Contador, having led the race for 13 days between the fourth and sixteenth stages. Rodríguez also achieved three stage victories. The
2013 Vuelta a España saw another shock result when the 41-year-old American
Chris Horner defeated Vincenzo Nibali, Alejandro Valverde and Joaquim Rodríguez to become the first North American to win the Vuelta and the oldest rider to win a grand tour. In addition Horner clinched the race's
combination classification. The race was also notable for
Tony Martin's all-day solo break on stage 6, when he broke away at the start and led for nearly the entire stage before being caught 20 metres from the finish line, placing seventh behind stage winner
Michael Mørkøv. In March 2014, ASO acquired full control of Unipublic, with both working together with the running of the race. The
2014 race featured a field described as the strongest in a grand tour in recent memory, as a range of accomplished riders entered the race after suffering injuries or health problems earlier in the season. Contador claimed his third Vuelta, Contador went into the race uncertain of his form after crashing out of the
Tour de France on the 10th stage, breaking his tibia. However, Contador found his form in the race earlier than expected, taking the red jersey on the 10th stage
individual time trial and taking two key mountain stage wins on his way to victory. He won the race by 1' 10" over runner-up, Chris Froome. Like Contador, Froome also went into the race uncertain of his form after he crashed three times in two days during the Tour, leading to his withdrawal. However, Froome came to life during the third week, finishing second in three key mountain stages and taking time to move into second place overall. Alejandro Valverde completed the podium, finishing 40 seconds behind Froome and 1 minute and 50 seconds behind Contador. The
2015 edition saw another strong field contest the race, including the top four finishers at the
2015 Tour de France (Froome, Valverde, Nibali and
Nairo Quintana) and two of the podium finishers from the
2015 Giro d'Italia in the form of Nibali's teammates
Fabio Aru and
Mikel Landa. The early leaders of the race were
Esteban Chaves and
Tom Dumoulin, who exchanged the leader's
red jersey several times during the first ten days of racing, with both riders winning
summit finishes in the first week. With the withdrawals of Chris Froome and the disqualification of Vincenzo Nibali, Nibali's team mate
Fabio Aru took over the race lead following the mountainous Stage 11, which took place entirely within Andorra. He kept his lead for five stages as the race entered the mountains of northern Spain, but lost it to Rodríguez on Stage 16. Dumoulin took the lead back on Stage 17 – the race's only
individual time trial – with Aru three seconds behind in second place. Aru
attacked throughout the final stages and, on the penultimate day, finally
dropped Dumoulin, who fell to sixth place overall. Aru therefore took the first Grand Tour victory of his career. Nairo Quintana won the
2016 edition ahead of Froome, with the Colombian
Esteban Chaves finishing third. Quintana had gained over minutes over Froome on Stage 15 when he and Contador attacked together from into the stage and blew the race apart, isolating Froome from his teammates. Whilst Froome fought back and managed to gain back nearly all he had lost in a dominant victory on the stage 19 individual time trial to Calp, Quintana was able to follow several attacks by Froome on Stage 20, the final mountain stage to Alto de Aitana, to secure overall victory by 1:23 over Froome. By doing so, Quintana became the second Colombian after
Luis Herrera in
1987 to win the Vuelta. The
2017 edition started in
Nîmes, France. It was the first time the race has started in France and only the third time it has started outside Spain, after
1997 (Portugal) and
2009 (Netherlands). The
general classification was won by
2017 Tour de France champion
Chris Froome from , ahead of
Vincenzo Nibali of . Froome became the third rider to win the Tour-Vuelta double after
Jacques Anquetil (1963) and
Bernard Hinault (1978), and the first to do so since the Vuelta was moved to its current calendar position. Froome also won the
points and
combination classifications, becoming the first rider to win three jerseys in a single Vuelta since
Denis Menchov in 2007. In
2018, it was another British rider who won the race, in
Simon Yates, riding for the
Mitchelton–Scott. Aged 26 this was Yates' first grand tour win, and meant that for the first time all three grand tours in a year had been won by three different riders from the same country, after Froome won the
2018 Giro d'Italia and
Geraint Thomas won the
2018 Tour de France.
2019–present wearing the Red Jersey at the
2020 Vuelta a España The 2019 Vuelta was won by
Primož Roglič, who became the first Slovenian cyclist to win a Grand Tour. The
2020 Vuelta a España was originally scheduled to be held from 14 August to 6 September 2020. In April 2020, the
2020 Tour de France was rescheduled to run between the 29 August and 20 September, having been postponed in view of the
COVID-19 pandemic. On 15 April, UCI announced that both the
Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta would take place in autumn after the
2020 UCI Road World Championships. On 5 May, UCI announced that the postponed Giro and the Vuelta would run between 3 and 25 October and between 20 October and 8 November, respectively. For the first time since
1985, the race was not 21 stages long; instead, it was held in a reduced format over 18 stages. Roglic defended his title in a hard-fought race with
Richard Carapaz which was among the closest Vueltas in history with the winning margin being only +0:24. The 2020 Vuelta had the smallest margin of victory since the
1984 Vuelta a España, which was the smallest margin of victory of any grand tour in cycling history. In 2021, Roglič returned in the
2021 Vuelta a España and this time dominated the field to take his third consecutive victory in the race. He became only the third rider to win the race in three successive years. He won by 4' 42", the largest margin of victory since
Alex Zülle won by 5' 07" in
1997. The
2022 Vuelta a España was won by the UCI World Road Race champion, Belgian
Remco Evenepoel after starting in
Utrecht,
Netherlands. The
2023 Vuelta a España was won by
Sepp Kuss, who took the red jersey on stage 6 after winning from a breakaway. Kuss held on to win the general classification by 17 seconds over his teammate
Jonas Vingegaard. Primoz Roglič, also a member of , finished third, making the race the first time a single team swept the podium of a grand tour. The
2024 Vuelta a España was won by Primož Roglič, who tied Roberto Heras's record for the most general classification wins. The
2025 Vuelta a España was won by
Jonas Vingegaard for the first time. Vingegaard built an advantage early on in the race with two stage wins, before defending his lead despite illness in the second week. A win on the penultimate stage sealed his victory. Several stages of the race were affected by pro-Palestinian protests regarding the
Gaza war, and the inclusion of
Israel–Premier Tech team, with multiple stages finishing prematurely, two without a stage winner. The final stage to Madrid, in particular, was cancelled upon reaching the circuit after several protesters invaded the road and knocked down the barriers. ==Classifications==