The 39th Edition ''

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; ) is an annual stage race, multi-stage bicycle racing, bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Ital ...

'' (Tour of Spain), a long-distance

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...

stage Stage, stages, or staging may refer to: Arts and media Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly Brit ...

race and one of the 3 Grand Tours, was held from 17 April to 6 May 1984. It consisted of 19 stages covering a total of 3,593 km, and was won by

Éric Caritoux Éric Caritoux (born 16 August 1960 in Carpentras, Vaucluse) is a French former professional road racing cyclist who raced between 1983 and 1994. He had 22 victories in his career, the highlights of which were winning the Vuelta a España in 1984 ...

of the Skil–Sem

cycling team A cycling team is a group of cycle sport, cyclists who join a team or are acquired and train together to compete in bicycle racing, bicycle races whether amateur or professional – and the supporting personnel. Cycling teams are most important i ...

. It was one of the most surprising grand tour victories in cycling history as Caritoux, a virtual unknown who was part of a lineup that was thrown together at the last minute, won by the closest margin in history. Caritoux, a second year professional, had shown his climbing talent earlier that year by winning the stage up the Mont-Ventoux of the 1984

Paris–Nice Paris–Nice is a professional road bicycle racing, cycling stage race in France, held annually since 1933. Raced over eight days, the race usually starts with a prologue in the Paris region and ends with a final stage either in Nice or on the ...

but he did not enter the 1984 Vuelta a España thinking of the overall classification. On stage 8 Roger De Vlaeminck, one of the oldest riders professionally, won the first Vuelta stage of his career which gave him a stage win in all three grand tours. Fourteen years earlier he won his first grand tour stage during the

1970 Tour de France The 1970 Tour de France was the 57th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours. It took place between 27 June and 19 July, with 23 stages covering a distance of . It was the second victory for Belgian Eddy ...

and had won 22 Giro stages in between. On the 12th stage to

Lagos de Covadonga The Lakes of Covadonga (el. 1134 m.) () are two glacial lakes located on the region of Asturias, Spain. These lakes, often also called Lakes of Enol or simply Los Lagos, are Lake Enol and Lake Ercina located in the Picos de Europa ra ...

an area in Asturias which includes one of the most important climbs of the Vuelta, Caritoux finished second behind the German Raimund Dietzen. Caritoux took the leader's jersey from

Pedro Delgado Pedro Delgado Robledo (; born 15 April 1960), also known as Perico (), is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer. He won the 1988 Tour de France, as well as the Vuelta a España in 1985 and 1989. He finished in the top 10 of eighteen ...

Alberto Fernández Alberto Ángel Fernández (; born 2 April 1959) is an Argentine politician, lawyer, and academic who served as President of Argentina from 2019 to 2023. He was also the Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers from 2003 to 2008. His tenure as Cabin ...

was 32 seconds behind Caritoux in the general classification at that stage. Fernández had been third the year previously in the

and in the

Giro d'Italia The Giro d'Italia (; ), also known simply as the Giro, is an annual stage race, multiple-stage bicycle racing, bicycle race primarily held in Italy, while also starting in, or passing through, other countries. The first race was organized in 19 ...

. On the stage 14 mountain time trial, Caritoux lost five seconds. Caritoux lost further time in the final individual time trial but still managed to finish the race with a slender lead of six seconds over Fernández, the smallest margin in the history of the Vuelta a España, and also the smallest ever seen in a Grand Tour. Fernández died later on in 1984.

Teams

Thirteen teams were invited by the race organizers to participate in the 1984 edition of the Vuelta a España, six of which were based outside of Spain. Each team sent a squad of ten riders, meaning that the race started with a

peloton In a road Cycle sport, bicycle race, the peloton (, originally meaning ) is the main group or pack of riders. Riders in a group save energy by riding close (drafting (racing), drafting or slipstreaming) to (particularly behind) other riders. The ...

of 130 cyclists. From the riders that began the race, 97 made it to the finish in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. The teams entering the race were:

Route and stages

Covering a total of , it included three

individual time trial An individual time trial (ITT) is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock (in French: ''contre la montre'' – literally "against the watch", in Italian: ''tappa a cronometro'' "stopwatch stage"). There are also trac ...

s, and thirteen stages with categorized climbs that awarded

mountains classification The King of the Mountains (KoM) is an award given to the best climbing specialist in a men's cycling road race; in women's cycle racing, Queen of the Mountains (QoM) is used. While the title may be given to the rider who achieves the highest p ...

points. Two of these thirteen stages had summit finishes: stage 7, to Rassos de Peguera; and stage 12, to Lagos de Enol. Another stage with a mountain-top finish was stage 14, which consisted of a climbing time trial to Monte Narasco. The organizers chose to include no rest days. When compared to the previous year's race, the race was longer and contained the same amount of time trials, stages, and rest days.

Classification leadership

Three different jerseys were worn during the 1984 Vuelta a España. The leader of the

general classification The general classification (or the GC) in road bicycle racing is the category that tracks overall times for riders in multi-stage races. Each stage will have a stage winner, but the overall winner in the GC is the rider who has the fastest cumulati ...

– calculated by adding the stage finish times of each rider, and allowing time bonuses for the first three finishers on mass-start stages – wore a golden jersey. This classification is the most important of the race, and its winner is considered as the winner of the Vuelta. For the

points classification The points classification is a secondary award category in road bicycle racing. Points are given for high finishes and, in some cases, for winning sprints at certain places along the route, most often called ''intermediate sprints''. The points c ...

, which awarded a light blue jersey to its leader, cyclists were given points for finishing a stage in the top 15; additional points could also be won in intermediate sprints. The green jersey was awarded to the

leader. In this ranking, points were won by reaching the summit of a climb ahead of other cyclists. Each climb was ranked as either first, second or third category, with more points available for higher category climbs. The leader of the mountains classification wore a green jersey. Although no jersey was awarded, there was also one classification for the teams, in which the stage finish times of the best three cyclists per team were added; the leading team was the one with the lowest total time. The rows in the following table correspond to the jerseys awarded after that stage was run.

Final standings

General classification

Points classification

Mountains classification

Team classification

Intermediate sprints classification

Special sprints classification

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vuelta A Espana, 1984 1984 in road cycling

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

1984 in Spanish sport

1984 Super Prestige Pernod