Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory lies on the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, to the south of the Pyrenees mountain range. Catalonia is administratively divided into four provinces or eight regions, which are in turn divided into 42 comarques. The capital and largest city, Barcelona, is the second-most populated municipality in Spain and the fifth-most populous urban area in the European Union.
Montjuïc is a hill in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
Jesús Luis Ocaña Pernía was a Spanish road bicycle racer who won the 1973 Tour de France and the 1970 Vuelta a España. During the 1971 Tour de France he launched an amazing solo breakaway that put him into the Yellow Jersey and stunned the rest of the main field, including back to back Tour champion Eddy Merckx, but abandoned in the fourteenth stage after a crash on the descent of the Col de Menté. Ocaña would abandon as many Tours as he entered, but he finished every Vuelta a España he entered except for his first, and finished in the top 5 seven times in a row.
Roberto Heras Hernández is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer who won the Vuelta a España a record four times. Between 1997 and 2005 he finished in the top 5 of the Vuelta every year except 1998 when he finished 6th. He won a record-tying three times, and then broke the record with a fourth win in 2005, but he was eventually disqualified after being accused of taking EPO. Heras chose to fight the accusations and this resulted in a lengthy court case and appeal process.
Federico Martín Bahamontes, born Alejandro Martín Bahamontes, was a Spanish professional road racing cyclist. He won the 1959 Tour de France and a total of 11 Grand Tour stages between 1954 and 1965. He won a total of nine mountain classifications and was the first cyclist to complete a "career triple" by winning the mountain classification in all three Grand Tours. Following his retirement, Bahamontes ran a bicycle and motorcycle shop and was named the best climber in the history of the Tour de France by a panel organised by L'Équipe in 2013.
The Volta a Catalunya is a road bicycle race held annually in Catalonia, Spain.
Miguel Poblet Orriols was a Spanish professional cyclist, who had over 200 professional victories from 1944 to 1962. He was the first Spanish rider to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, and in 1956 he became the first of only three riders to win stages in the three Grand Tours in the same year. He won the Milan–San Remo classic race on two occasions and took 26 stage wins in the three Grand Tours. His twenty-stage wins in the Giro d'Italia makes him the third most successful foreign rider in the "Giro" behind Eddy Merckx (25) and Roger De Vlaeminck (22). Poblet was of short stature who had great power, he was the first Spanish rider to be a specialist in one day races in an age when Spain only produced climbers. He had a lightning fast sprint, but could also climb well, taking the Spanish Mountain championships on three occasions and the mountainous Volta a Catalunya twice. His nickname whilst riding was "La Flecha Amarilla" due to the yellow kit of his Ignis team.
Pica d'Estats is a 3,143-metre-high (10,312 ft) mountain in the Montcalm Massif, Pyrenees. on the Spanish–French border, and is the highest mountain in Catalonia.
Julio Jiménez Muñoz was a Spanish professional road racing cyclist.
Julián Berrendero Martín was a Spanish road racing cyclist. He is most famous for having won the third and fourth editions of the Vuelta a España in 1941 and 1942. He won the 1941 race after having spent 18 months in a Francoist concentration camp. In addition, he won a total of three mountains jerseys at the Vuelta and the Tour de France
- “Berrendero was a marked man, a public figure who had supported the Republican cause. As soon as he reached the Spanish border, Franco’s men arrested him and threw him into a concentration camp, where he remained for 18 months. He survived the camps, which were characterized by disease, malnourishment and frequent beatings, but to what physical and mental cost? He was only 27 and should have been at the height of his cycling career.”
Fígols is a municipality in the comarca of the Berguedà in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated to the north of Cercs, in the mountains above the Llobregat valley. Deposits of lignite are extracted commercially.
Emilio Rodríguez Barros was a Spanish professional road bicycle racer from Ponteareas who won the King of the Mountains classification at Vuelta a España three times and captured the overall title at the 1950 Vuelta a España. Rodríguez's two brothers were also professional cyclists - his older brother Delio won the 1945 Vuelta a España and in total won 39 stages at the Vuelta a España. Emilio's other brother Manolo finished second in the general classification of the edition that Emilio won.
Álvaro Pino Couñago is a former professional road racing cyclist from Galicia who raced between 1981 through 1991 and is most famous for winning the overall title at the 1986 Vuelta a España over favorites Robert Millar from Great Britain, Laurent Fignon from France and Sean Kelly from Ireland. The following year, Pino captured the 1987 Volta a Catalunya and at the 1988 Vuelta, Pino won two stages and the King of the Mountains jersey. In all, he won five stages over his career at the Vuelta a España.
Estat Català is a pro-independence nationalist historical political party of Catalonia (Spain).
Antonio Karmany Mestres is a Spanish former professional road racing cyclist.
Pedro Torres Cruces is a Spanish former road bicycle racer. He was a GC contender in Grand Tours.
Vallter 2000 is a ski resort located in the eastern Pyrenees close to Setcases, Girona, Catalonia (Spain). It is located near the river source of the Ter River, surrounded by Bastiments, Gra de Fajol and Pic de la Dona.
Anarchism in Andorra peaked during the 1930s, when anarchist ideas were at the forefront of revolutionary politics in the Catalan countries.
The 2022 Volta a Catalunya was a road cycling stage race that took place between 21 and 27 March 2022. The race took place primarily in the autonomous community of Catalonia in northeastern Spain, with the rest of the route in the department of Pyrénées-Orientales in southern France. It was the 101st edition of the Volta a Catalunya and the seventh race of the 2022 UCI World Tour.
