1984 Vuelta a España: Difference between revisions

The 39th ''[[Vuelta a España]]'' (Tour of [[Spain]]), a long-distance [[Bicycle racing|bicycle]] [[Stage (bicycle race)|stage]] race and one of the 3 [[Grand Tour (cycling)|Grand Tours]], was held from 17 April to 6 May 1984. It consisted of 19 stages covering a total of 3,593&nbsp;km, and was won by [[Éric Caritoux]] of the [[Skil-Sem (cycling team)|Skil-Sem]] [[cycling team]]. 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 Espana thinking of the overall classification. 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]] who was also riding his first Vuelta a España. 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 [[1983 Vuelta a España|Vuelta a España]] and in the [[1983 Giro d'Italia|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.<ref name="ELM DB4-1">{{cite news|url=http://hemeroteca-paginas.mundodeportivo.com/EMD01/HEM/1984/04/17/MD19840417-020.pdf|title=Una "Vuelta" a la Española|language=Spanish|date=17 April 1984|page=20|newspaper=El Mundo Deportivo|publisher=El Mundo Deportivo S.A.|accessdate=27 May 2012|format=PDF|trans-title=A "Return" to the Spanish|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150419142542/http://hemeroteca-paginas.mundodeportivo.com/EMD01/HEM/1984/04/17/MD19840417-020.pdf|archivedate=19 April 2015|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="ELM DB4-2">{{cite news|url=http://hemeroteca-paginas.mundodeportivo.com/EMD01/HEM/1984/04/17/MD19840417-021.pdf|title=Una "Vuelta" a la Española|language=Spanish|date=17 April 1984|page=21|newspaper=El Mundo Deportivo|publisher=El Mundo Deportivo S.A.|accessdate=27 May 2012|format=PDF|trans-title=A "Return" to the Spanish|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150419142752/http://hemeroteca-paginas.mundodeportivo.com/EMD01/HEM/1984/04/17/MD19840417-021.pdf|archivedate=19 April 2015|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="ELM DB4-3">{{cite news|url=http://hemeroteca-paginas.mundodeportivo.com/EMD01/HEM/1984/04/17/MD19840417-022.pdf|title=Una "Vuelta" a la Española|language=Spanish|date=17 April 1984|page=22|newspaper=El Mundo Deportivo|publisher=El Mundo Deportivo S.A.|accessdate=27 May 2012|format=PDF|trans-title=A "Return" to the Spanish|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150419151247/http://hemeroteca-paginas.mundodeportivo.com/EMD01/HEM/1984/04/17/MD19840417-022.pdf|archivedate=19 April 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Roger De Vlaeminck]] would win stage 8, this would be the final Grand Tour stage win for the legendary rider known as "Mr. Paris-Roubaix".