The 28th Edition Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain), a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from April 26 to May 13, 1973. It consisted of 17 stages covering a total of 3,061 km, and was won by Eddy Merckx of the Molteni cycling team. As Merckx had already won several editions of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia with his win in the Vuelta, he became the third cyclist after Jacques Anquetil and Felice Gimondi to win all three grand tours in his career. Merckx went on to win the 1973 Giro d'Italia and became the first cyclist to win the Vuelta-Giro double. Merckx also won the points classification and José Luis Abilleira won the mountains classification. With Merckx finishing first, Ocaña second and Thévenet third the podium of the 1973 Vuelta contained one previous winner and two future winners of the Tour de France making it one of the best podiums in the history of the race, according to the official race website. Merckx won six stages in this edition and Gerben Karstens won four.

Teams

A total of eight teams were invited to participate in the 1973 Vuelta a España. Each team sent a squad of ten riders, which meant that the race started with a peloton of 80 cyclists. 62 cyclists reached the finish in San Sebastián.

The teams entering the race were:

KAS Bic La Casera MolteniPeugeot-B.P. Coelima-BenficaMonte Verde Rokado

Route and stages

+Stage characteristics and resultsStageDateCourseDistanceTypeWinnerP26 AprilCalp to Calp Individual time trial 127 AprilCalp to Murcia 228 AprilMurcia to Albacete 329 AprilAlbacete to Alcázar de San Juan 430 AprilAlcázar de San Juan to Cuenca 51 MayCuenca to Teruel 6a2 MayTeruel to La Pobla de Farnals 6bLa Pobla de Farnals Team time trialMolteni73 MayLa Pobla de Farnals to Castellón de la Plana 84 MayCastellón de la Plana to Calafell 9a5 MayCalafell to Barcelona 9bBarcelona to Barcelona Individual time trial 106 MayBarcelona to Empuriabrava 117 MayEmpuriabrava to Manresa 128 MayManresa to Zaragoza 139 MayMallén to 1410 May to Bilbao 15a11 MayBilbao to Torrelavega 15bTorrelavega to Torrelavega Individual time trial 1612 MayTorrelavega to Miranda de Ebro 17a13 MayMiranda de Ebro to Tolosa, Gipuzkoa 17bHernani to San Sebastián Individual time trial Total

Classification leadership

Four different jerseys were worn during the 1973 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 combination classification awarded a red jersey to its leader.

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 Combination classification Team classification P Eddy Merckx Eddy Merckx not awarded not awarded not awarded not awarded 1 Pieter Nassen Pieter Nassen Domingo Perurena Rokado 2 Gerben Karstens Gerben Karstens Gerben Karstens Javier Elorriaga & Jean-Jacques Fussien 3 Pieter Nassen Pieter Nassen José Luis Abilleira Jean-Jacques Fussien 4 Jos Deschoenmaecker José Pesarrodona KAS 5 Gerben Karstens Gerben Karstens 6a Roger Swerts José Luis Galdamez Molteni 6b Molteni 7 Gerben Karstens Eddy Merckx 8 Eddy Merckx 9aJuan Manuel Santisteban 9bJacques Esclassan 10 Eddy Merckx 11Bernard Thévenet Eddy Merckx La Casera 12 Gerben Karstens 13Domingo Perurena 14 Juan Zurano 15a Eddy Peelman Eddy Merckx 15b Eddy Merckx 16 Eddy Merckx 17aEddy Peelman 17b Eddy Merckx Final Eddy Merckx Eddy Merckx José Luis Abilleira Eddy Merckx La Casera

Final standings

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

General Classification

+ Final general classification (1–10)Rank NameTeamTime 1 Molteni 2 Bic + 3' 46" 3 Peugeot-B.P. + 4' 16" 4 KAS + 5' 54" 5 La Casera + 7' 29" 6 Bic + 8' 15" 7 La Casera + 9' 15" 8 La Casera + 12' 26" 9 Molteni + 13' 27" 10 La Casera + 15' 01"

Points classification

+Final points classification (1–3)RiderTeamPoints 1 Molteni 215.5 2 Molteni 162.5 3 Rokado 154.5

Mountains classification

+Final mountains classification (1–4)RiderTeamPoints 1 La Casera 97 2 Molteni 83 3 La Casera 60 4 La Casera 50

Combination classification

+Final combination classification (1–3)RiderTeamPoints 1 Molteni 18 2 La Casera 11 3 Coelima-Benfica 6

Team classification

+Final team classification (1–8)TeamTime 1 La Casera 2 Bic + 4' 44" 3 Molteni + 6' 24" 4 KAS + 11' 28" 5 Monte Verde + 29' 01" 6 Coelima-Benfica + 32' 03" 7 Peugeot-B.P. + 32' 51" 8 Rokado + 51' 22"

Intermediate sprints classification

+ Final intermediate sprints classification (1–10)RiderTeamPoints 1 Molteni 26 2 KAS 24 3 Coelima-Benfica 15 4 Coelima-Benfica 10 5 Rokado 9 6 La Casera 6 7 KAS 8 Rokado 9 Molteni 5 10 Molteni

References

Citations