Tour of Galicia

Tour of Galicia

Race details
Date	August/September
Region	Galicia, Spain
Local name(s)	Vuelta a Galicia (in Spanish) Volta a Galicia (in Galician)
Discipline	Road
Type	Stage race
History
First edition	1933 (1933)
Editions	44 (as of 2024)
First winner	Salvador Cardona  (ESP)
Most wins	Emilio Rodríguez  (ESP) (3 wins)
Most recent	José Luis Faura  (ESP)

The Tour of Galicia (Spanish: Vuelta a Galicia; Galician : Volta a Galicia) is an annual cycling race held in Galicia, Spain. It was first held in 1933 and was held a further five times between 1934 and 1984. The tour did not take place from the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, until the end of the Second World War in 1945. In 1986, it became a regular annual race. The final professional edition of the race was held in 2000. In 2002, after a year's hiatus, the race returned to the calendar as an amateur race.

History

The first Vuelta a Galicia occurred in 1933 between August 9 and 13. ^[1]  Villalba's (Vilalba) local newspaper, Faro Villalbés, reported on the race. ^[2]   There were 33 initial competitors and eight were from the region of Galicia.

The race started in Vigo and the cyclists covered 195 kilometers to Orense, averaging about 31 kilometers per hour.

The second stage started with 29 competitors going from Orense to Lugo covering 125 kilometers and the cyclists averaged about 21 kilometers per hour.

On the third day, the competitors cycled 105 kilometers from Lugo to Ribadeo with the winner of this stage arriving in 3 hours, 18 minutes and 50 seconds.

The next stage, the fourth, the cyclist rode 153 kilometers from Ribadeo to Ferrol, averaging 28 kilometers an hour.  See article for order of arrival by the first 7 cyclists. ^[2]

In the fifth stage, the cyclists started in El Ferrol, traveled through Jubia (Xubia), Puentes de García Rodriguez, Cabreiros, Villalba (Vilalba), Trasparga Guitiriz, San Julian de Coirós, Betanzos, Espíritu Santo and ending in La Coruña.

On the sixth stage the cyclists rode 237 kilometers from La Coruña to Pontevedra.

In the final stage only 19 cyclists remained, riding 120 kilometers from Pontevedra to Vigo.  The winner was Cardona, finishing at 41 hours, 28 minutes and 5 seconds.  The winning purse was 3,000 pesetas which equates to about $320, in 1933.

Past winners

Year	Country	Rider	Team
1933	Spain	Salvador Cardona
1934	No race
1935	Spain	Julián Berrendero
1936–1944	No race
1945	Spain	Delio Rodríguez
1946	Spain	Emilio Rodríguez
1947	Spain	Emilio Rodríguez
1948–1954	No race
1955	Spain	Emilio Rodríguez
1956–1983	No race
1984	Spain	Vicente Belda
1985	Spain	Jesús Blanco Villar
1986	No race
1987	Spain	Jokin Mújika
1988	Spain	Marino Lejarreta
1989	Spain	Vicente Ridaura
1990	Spain	Federico Echave
1991	Colombia	Álvaro Mejía
1992	Switzerland	Fabian Jeker
1993	United States	Andrew Hampsten
1994	Spain	Laudelino Cubino
1995	Spain	Miguel Induráin
1996	Spain	Abraham Olano
1997	Spain	Aitor Garmendia
1998	Belgium	Frank Vandenbroucke
1999	Spain	Marcos-Antonio Serrano
2000	Kazakhstan	Andrey Teteryuk
2001	No race
2002	Spain	Fernando Torres Martín
2003	Costa Rica	José Adrián Bonilla
2004	Spain	Luis Fernández Oliveira
2005	Spain	Manuel Jesús Jiménez
2006	Spain	Óscar Laguna
2007	Spain	Óscar Laguna
2008	Spain	Óscar García-Casarrubios
2009	Spain	Enrique Salgueiro
2010	Spain	Raúl García de Mateos
2011	Spain	José Belda
2012	Portugal	Luís Afonso
2013	Spain	Pedro Gregori
2014	Spain	Aitor González Prieto
2015	Spain	Aitor González Prieto
2016	Spain	Samuel Blanco
2017	Spain	Martín Lestido
2018	Spain	Sergio Vega
2019	Spain	Martí Márquez
2020	No race
2021	Spain	Álex Martín
2022	Spain	Fernando Tercero
2023	Spain	Martín Rey
2024	Spain	José Luis Faura

References

1. Faro Villalbés, 1932-1936. Santiago de Compostela: Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. 2002. p. 164. ISBN   9788497501309.
2. "Faro Villalbés, 1932-1936". Google Libros. 2005–2009. ISBN   9788497501309 . Retrieved January 3, 2020.