The rich prehistory of la Vuelta a España (that probably you haven´t never listen)

Juanfran de la Cruz
Aug 9, 2017 · 2 min read
Heraldo de Madrid; artículo de Antonio Vidal (@BNE_biblioteca).

1924. October. A curious headline appears on the frontpage of the spanish newspaper Heraldo de Madrid: “Ottavio Bottecchia promises to run the Tour of Spain”. ¿Bottecchia? ¿La Vuelta? ¿Really? ¿How is it possible? The Italian big champion, double winner of the Tour of France (1924, 1925), only ‘roaded’ one race (from the point of view of a race by stages) in Spain: the Tour of Basque Country, twice (1925, 1926). And by another hand, the Spanish big race wasn´t to be created yet; we have to wait until 1935, april. ¿It´s a joke? Really not. Bottecchia and Vuelta were joined in the past by one of the most important project to create the Vuelta a España. Probably it´s the first time that you read something about this topic. A very rich prehistory for the youngest ‘Gran Tour’. Here´s a resume.

Since 1913, and from the city of Barcelone, some people tried to create the first Vuelta. Only ten years after the Tour of France and four of Giro of Italy. Sure, the history of cycling would be very different… However, few questions stopped that movement. And that idea survived into the aim of the believers. Sometimes this project was spoken, although it never grew up. Even some crazy adventurers did not hesitate to cycle around Spain by own way (like the basque Tomás Pérez de Junguitu at 1928: 34 days for cycling over 4.622 km).

The project of Heraldo de Madrid probably was the second most important attempt to create the first Vuelta a España in 1925. The newspaper covered a very interesting day by day about all the news of the race. The dates and the route were interesting questions. Even a organizing committee was created. And they elected to racing from September, 20, to October, 11, over 13 stages a lot of reposs journeys (12). Of course, another example of the historical coworking between newspapers and cycling. Mainly, the future first edition of La Vuelta, 1935, will follow that desing. In 1935 the first stage climbed el Puerto de Los Leones (1511 metros). The fist election for 1925 was Puerto de Navacerrada (1.860 m). Both cols have been joined to the heart of the Vuelta since then.

La Vuelta is one of the races with a richer prehistory of the bike´s world and some of this issues are narrated by one chapter of El Afilador, a new cycling book recently published by Libros de Ruta at Spain. A compilation of cycling stories (in spanish) that wants to appears each year with new material.

Pd. Sorry for the grammars mistakes and thanks a lot for read this post.

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