VUELTA A ESPAÑA
ESTABLISHED 1935 EDITIONS 76
Of all the biggest races in the WorldTour - the monuments, grand tours and the World Championships - the Vuelta has gained most in prestige compared to its roots in the last couple of decades. Even into the 2000s, it was a relatively parochial affair, and as recently as 2004, 23 of the final top 25 riders (including the entire top 10) were Spanish. In its early years, it suffered from the political instability of its home country, and the poor economy - it only started up in the 1930s, compared to the Tour and Giro which started in 1903 and 1909, and it only settled into taking place annually from 1955.
The Vuelta benefitted greatly from its shift in the calendar from spring to late summer in the mid-1990s, but it’s the perception that along with the Tour and Giro it is one of the biggest three stage races in the world, that has fed its growth in prestige in recent years. Even after it became a more international event, it remained a consolation prize after the Tour. But now it attracts virtually the same level of field as the Tour itself, and the days of obscure winners are over forever. Primož Roglic has won the last two, and Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana and Alberto Contador have also won in the course of the last decade.
The Vuelta has also grown in confidence in terms of its structure and route. It used to follow the lead of the Tour, with generic flat stages across the country’s dusty interior and set-piece mountain showdowns. However, it has grasped the importance of variation, and has pioneered the use of short, steep uphill finishes. At the same time, it has turned down the brutality, with fewer of the multiple mountain passes that are common in the Giro and Tour. The repeated summit finishes make the race look harder than it actually is. The Vuelta has also belatedly realised that the natural beauty of the lesser known regions of Spain, like the north-western corner, is an asset for the race, and it has even reignited its love affair with the Basque Country, a region it avoided for many years owing to the delicate political situation with the local separatists.
The start list for 2021 will not take shape until at least the end of the Giro d’Italia. The Vuelta’s position in late summer means that ambitious grand tour riders can realistically target a GiroVuelta double (though nobody has succeeded in that initiative since Alberto Contador in 2008), and riders who didn’t get it right at the Tour can also hold their peak for long enough to win it. Exhibit A in that regard is Roglic, who went into the 2020 Tour de France in top form and lost the race on the penultimate stage, but held on to enough form through the Vuelta to hold off a late challenge from Richard Carapaz and win the overall for the second year in a row.
But the Vuelta has earned enough prestige of its own that irrespective of what’s happened in Italy or France, it is an important race that is a big target in itself, and the winner will be a bona fide star of the sport.