La Vuelta Ciclista a España

La Vuelta Ciclista a España is Spain's three-week Grand Tour, a men's bike race held each August and September. First run in 1935, it is the last of the three Grand Tours each season, and its overall leader has worn the red jersey since 2010.

The Vuelta a España is Spain’s three-week Grand Tour, first raced in the spring of 1935. It moved to late summer in 1995, and its leader wore orange, white, yellow and gold before the red jersey arrived in 2010. The Angliru in Asturias joined the route in 1999.

How many stages are in the Vuelta a España?

The Vuelta a España has 21 stages and two rest days, 23 days in all. Its routes from 2021 to 2026 measured between about 3,100 and 3,340 kilometers, roughly 1,930 to 2,075 miles.

What do the Vuelta a España jerseys mean?

The red jersey, La Roja, is for the leader of the general classification, the rider with the lowest total time over the stages. Green is for the leader on points, which riders score with their finishing positions on each stage, and the polka dot jersey for the leader of the mountains classification, on points scored at the classified passes. White is for the best young rider in the general classification, open to riders aged 25 or under in the year of the race.

The first Vuelta in 1935 and its orange jersey

The newspaper Informaciones organized the first Vuelta, which ran from April 29 to May 15, 1935. The route covered 3,425 kilometers in 14 stages and started and finished in Madrid. Fifty riders took the start, 32 of them Spanish, and 29 reached the finish.

Gustaaf Deloor of Belgium won at an average speed of 27.2 kilometers per hour. Mariano Cañardo finished second, after racing without teammates from the fourth stage on. Antonio Escuriet, from Valencia, was the first Spaniard to win a stage. The race leader wore an orange jersey, and Deloor won in it again in 1936.

From orange to red: the Vuelta leader’s jersey

The leader’s jersey changed color several times in the years that followed. It was white in 1941, orange again in 1942, red for the first time in 1945, and white with a red stripe from 1946 to 1950. Yellow arrived in 1955 and lasted until 1998, with one exception. In 1977 the leader wore orange, and Freddy Maertens won 13 stages and the overall classification. Gold replaced yellow in 1999 and stayed for 11 editions, through 2009.

The red jersey, La Roja, was first awarded on the night of August 28, 2010, after a 13-kilometer team time trial through the streets of Seville. HTC-Columbia won, and Mark Cavendish crossed the line first and took the jersey. Javier Guillén, the race director since 2009, chose red in the year the national soccer team, also called La Roja, won the World Cup. Vincenzo Nibali was the first rider to win the Vuelta in red.

Why the Vuelta moved from spring to September

In 1995 the organizers and the UCI moved the race from April and May to late summer, hoping for a stronger international field. The proposal came from Hein Verbruggen, then president of the UCI. The spring race had trouble drawing the best stage racers: after his first Tour de France win in 1991, Miguel Indurain never rode the April Vuelta again. Laurent Jalabert won the first late-summer edition. The change also pushed the Volta a Catalunya out of September, where the Vuelta took its place.

The decision was argued over in Spain for years. Víctor Cordero, race director in 2008, still preferred the old calendar. “For the Vuelta, the April-May dates were better, no doubt about it,” he told Cyclingnews, while accepting that a longer season suited the teams. The journalist Chema Rodríguez, who had backed the move from the start, pointed to the weather, which is harsher in Spain in April than in September.

The Angliru’s first ascent in 1999

The Alto de l’Angliru in Asturias was first used in 1999, at the end of a 176-kilometer eighth stage from León. The climb is 12.4 kilometers long at an average of 9.8 percent, with stretches above 20 percent. Cold rain fell all day and fog covered the mountain. About 90 of the 171 riders crashed, most of them on the descents of the Cobertoria and the Cordal before the final climb.

Pavel Tonkov attacked at the foot of the Angliru and rode alone until one kilometer remained. José María Jiménez had started his chase four kilometers from the top. He caught Tonkov there and won the sprint among race motorcycles that had no way off the road. Abraham Olano kept the lead that day, and Jan Ullrich won that Vuelta.

Sepp Kuss wins as Jumbo-Visma fills the 2023 podium

In 2023 the Angliru put three teammates first, second and third. Primož Roglič won the stage ahead of Jonas Vingegaard. Their Jumbo-Visma teammate Sepp Kuss, the race leader, was dropped inside the last two kilometers and lost 19 seconds. He kept the red jersey by eight seconds over Vingegaard.

Four stages earlier the same three had filled the first three places on the Col du Tourmalet in France, where Vingegaard won. Kuss held the lead to Madrid and won his first Grand Tour, with Vingegaard second and Roglič third. He had been a helper in six Grand Tour wins by the other two. Jumbo-Visma had also won the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France that year, and it became the first team to win all three Grand Tours in one season.

Roglič’s four wins and the 2024 time trial in Madrid

Roglič won in 2019, 2020 and 2021, and a fourth time in 2024. That put him level with Roberto Heras for the most overall wins. The 2024 race was settled on its last two days. On Picón Blanco, at the end of a stage with seven categorized climbs, Eddie Dunbar won and Roglič finished third, 10 seconds behind, to keep the lead. The next day Stefan Küng won a 24.6-kilometer time trial in Madrid, Roglič was second at 31 seconds, and Ben O’Connor stayed second overall ahead of Enric Mas.

Vingegaard’s 2025 win and Mas’s victory in Granada

Vingegaard won in 2025, which made Denmark the 15th nation to win the Vuelta. The last stage did not reach its finish. Protesters blocked the road when the peloton reached Madrid, the stage was ended early for the riders’ safety, and no podium ceremony was held.

The 2026 race started in Monaco and finished in Granada, the first time in 81 editions that the Vuelta ended there. Tadej Pogačar was leading when he crashed at high speed on stage 8 and abandoned with injuries to his left arm and shoulder. He was the first race leader to crash out since Igor Antón in 2010. Mas inherited the lead and did not put the jersey on at the podium that day. “I didn’t win the red jersey,” he said.

The next day Mas won at the Alto de Aitana in red. He kept the lead to Granada, after four earlier Vuelta podium finishes without a win. He was the first Spanish winner since Alberto Contador in 2014.

In 2023 Sepp Kuss kept the red jersey by eight seconds on the Angliru, a climb with stretches above 20 percent. The 2024 race was settled on its last two days, a summit finish at Picón Blanco and a time trial in Madrid. In 2026 Enric Mas became the first Spanish winner since Alberto Contador in 2014.