A round-up of the most successful riders in the history of the Vuelta a Espana.
The Vuelta a España is one of the world’s most esteemed cycling races. Until 1995, the race was held in the spring, before moving to a late-August start. Even in September, temperatures in Spain can be very hot, especially in the south, adding extra pressure for the riders.
Although it makes excursions to Spain’s southernmost provinces, the bulk of the action tends to be in the Pyrenees and the mountains along Spain’s northern coast in the Basque Country, Cantabria and Asturias.
The race typically finishes with laps of a circuit in Madrid, comparable to the final stage of the Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées.
When it was run in the spring, the Vuelta overlapped with the Giro d’Italia, which tended to restrict its appeal for international riders.
Nowadays, it’s a popular late-season race for riders who have ridden the Giro but not the Tour de France, or who have been forced to abandon the Giro or the Tour.
But who has conquered Spain more than any other cycling star?
RadioTimes.com brings you the most successful riders in the history of Vuelta a España.
Most Vuelta a España title wins
Primož Roglič (Slovenia) – 3
Primož Roglič is one of the foremost current stage racers and won the Vuelta in 2019, 2020 and 2021. In 2022, he abandoned the race while in second place, following a heavy crash on stage 14.
Roglič’s Vuelta wins came from stage victories in time trials and his ability to stay with the pace or win on the steep climbs of northern Spain. They’re talents that he also used to win the 2023 Giro d’Italia in May, when he took the lead from Welshman Geraint Thomas on the penultimate stage in a mountain time trial.
He skipped the 2023 Tour de France, but looks set to take to the start line of the Vuelta in Barcelona in August, aiming for a fourth win.
Alberto Contador (Spain) – 3
Contador won the Vuelta overall in 2008, 2012 and 2014. He was an aggressive, punchy climber and one of the dominant cyclists of the 2000s and 2010s. Alongside his three Vuelta wins, he also won the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia, both twice.
A controversial figure, Contador was criticised for battling the race leader at the 2010 Tour de France, Andy Schleck, when the latter suffered a dropped chain, with the result that Contador won the race overall.
He was subsequently stripped of that win and a win at the 2011 Giro d’Italia, when it was found that a blood sample given during the 2010 Tour was positive for a banned substance. This resulted in a two-year suspension from competition, although Contador protested his innocence, claiming that the failed test was the result of eating a contaminated steak.
Tony Rominger (Switzerland) – 3
Rominger won the Vuelta in 1992, ’93 and ’94 and took a total of 13 stage wins. He also won the 1995 Giro d’Italia and the king of the mountains competition at the 1993 Tour de France, being a rider who excelled at climbing and also at time trials.
The 1993 Vuelta was a close battle between Rominger and the younger Swiss rider Alex Zülle. Zülle was the better time trialist and led through the first half of the race, before Rominger took back the lead on a wet mountain stage. Zülle won the final stage time trial, but not by a large enough margin to win the race overall.
The 1994 race was a more one-sided affair, though, with Rominger winning the initial prologue time trial and holding the race lead from start to finish, while Zülle finished fourth.
Roberto Heras (Spain) – 4
Heras won the Vuelta in 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2005. His winning margin in 2004 was just 30 seconds, following a late run of stage victories by compatriot Santiago Pérez.
Heras’s final win in 2005 was more emphatic, with a 4 minute 36 second margin. But it was annulled when a blood sample tested positive for the blood booster EPO, a banned but commonly used performance enhancing drug at the time. He successfully contested the result and his 2005 win was reinstated in 2012.
Most Vuelta a España stage wins
Delio Rodríguez (Spain) – 39
Delio Rodríguez is the most successful stage winner at the Vuelta with 39 stages to his name in the 1940s.
A sprinter, he won 12 stages in the 1941 Vuelta, followed by eight the following year. As with Fausto Coppi in Italy, his career was interrupted by the Second World War, when the Vuelta wasn’t run for two years, but he returned and won the race overall by over 30 minutes in 1945, along with another six stages.
He won yet another five stages in 1946 and capped his career with another eight at the 1947 race, his last.
Vuelta a Espana multiple winners
- Roberto Heras – 4
- Tony Rominger – 3
- Alberto Contador – 3
- Primož Roglič – 3
- Gustaaf Deloor – 2
- Julián Berrendero – 2
- José Manuel Fuente – 2
- Bernard Hinault – 2
- Pedro Delgado – 2
- Alex Zülle – 2
- Chris Froome – 2
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