The 39th Edition Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain), a long-distance bicycle stage 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 of the Skil–Sem cycling team. 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 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 and had won 22 Giro stages in between. On the 12th stage to Lagos de Covadonga 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. Alberto Fernández was 32 seconds behind Caritoux in the general classification at that stage. Fernández had been third the year previously in the Vuelta a España and in the Giro d'Italia. 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 of 130 cyclists. From the riders that began the race, 97 made it to the finish in Madrid.

The teams entering the race were: Alfa Lum Hueso Del Tongo DormilónTuc Gis Kelme Orbea Reynolds Safir Skil Teka Tönissteiner Zor

Route and stages

Covering a total of , it included three individual time trials, and thirteen stages with categorized climbs that awarded mountains classification 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.

+ Stage characteristics and winnersStageDateCourseDistanceTypeWinnerP17 AprilJerez de la Frontera Individual time trial118 AprilJerez de la Frontera to Málaga Stage with mountain(s)219 AprilMálaga to Almería Plain stage320 AprilMojácar to Elche Plain stage421 AprilElche to Valencia Stage with mountain(s)522 AprilValencia to Salou Plain stage623 AprilSalou to Sant Quirze del Vallès Stage with mountain(s)724 AprilSant Quirze del Vallès to Rasos de Peguera Stage with mountain(s)825 AprilCardona to Zaragoza Stage with mountain(s)926 AprilZaragoza to Soria Stage with mountain(s)1027 AprilSoria to Burgos Plain stage1128 AprilBurgos to Santander Stage with mountain(s)1229 AprilSantander to Lagos de Covadonga Stage with mountain(s)1330 AprilCangas de Onís to Oviedo Stage with mountain(s)141 MayLugones to Monte Naranco Individual time trial152 MayOviedo to León Stage with mountain(s)163 MayLeón to Valladolid Plain stage174 MayValladolid to Segovia Stage with mountain(s)18a5 MaySegovia to Torrejón de Ardoz Stage with mountain(s)18bTorrejón de Ardoz Individual time trial196 MayTorrejón de Ardoz to Madrid Plain stage Total

Classification leadership

Three different jerseys were worn during the 1984 Vuelta a España. The leader of the general classification – 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, 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 mountains classification 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.

+Classification leadership by stage Stage Winner General classification Points classification Mountains classification Team classification P Francesco Moser Francesco Moser Francesco Moser not awarded Reynolds 1 Noël Dejonckheere Noël Dejonckheere Angel Camarillo 2 Guido Van Calster Guido Van Calster 3 Jozef Lieckens 4 Noël Dejonckheere Noël Dejonckheere Felipe Yáñez 5 Jozef Lieckens Teka 6 Michel Pollentier 7 Éric Caritoux Pedro Delgado 8 Roger De Vlaeminck 9Orlando Maini 10Palmiro Masciarelli 11Francesco Moser Guido Van Calster 12Raimund Dietzen Éric Caritoux 13Guido Van Calster 14 Julián Gorospe 15 Antonio Coll 16 Daniel Rossel 17José Recio 18aJesús Suárez Cueva 18bJulián Gorospe 19Noël Dejonckheere Final Éric Caritoux Guido Van Calster Felipe Yáñez Teka

Final standings

Legend      Denotes the winner of the General classification      Denotes the winner of the Mountains classification     Denotes the winner of the Points classification

General classification

+ Final general classification (1–10)RankNameTeamTime 1 Skil 2 Zor + 6" 3 Teka + 1' 33" 4 Reynolds + 1' 43" 5 Teka + 3' 40" 6 Reynolds + 4' 41" 7 Teka + 7' 10" 8 Kelme + 7' 14" 9 Kelme + 7' 21" 10 Tuc Gis + 8' 41"

Points classification

+Final points classification (1-10)RiderTeamPoints 1 Del Tongo 204 2 Teka 168 3 Safir 138 4 Tuc Gis 110 5 Tönissteiner 102 6 Hueso 98 7 Reynolds 96 8 Kelme 90 9 Skil 88 10 Teka 82

Mountains classification

+Final mountains classification (1-5)RiderTeamPoints 1 Orbea 81 2 Reynolds 59 3 Skil 50 4 Kelme 49 5 Zor 40

Team classification

+Final team classification (1-5)TeamTime 1 Teka 2 Zor + 9' 35" 3 Reynolds + 20' 17" 4 Hueso + 23' 58" 5 Skil + 39' 25"

Intermediate sprints classification

+ Final intermediate sprints classification (1–5)RiderTeamPoints 1 Safir 39 2 Safir 30 3 Dormilon 17 4 Teka 12 5 Tuc Gis 11

Special sprints classification

+Final special sprints classification (1–3)RiderTeamPoints 1 Hueso 35 2 Dormilon 19 3 Tönissteiner 15 4 Skil 13 5 Teka 8

References