Vuelta a Espana jerseys explained - Part 2
The Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana double has been achieved by four riders as Rudi Altig in 1962, Jan Janssen in 1967, Sean Kelly in 1985 and Laurent Jalabert in 1995 achieved their natural doubles by winning the points classification in the same year.
It is considered as a great achievement to wear the point’s classifications jersey in all the three Grand Tours during the career as it is termed as ‘career triples’ and has been achieved by Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Laurent Jalabert, Eddy Merckx and Alessandro
Petacchi.
3. Cyclists who finish the mountain peaks ahead of others are awarded with polka dot jersey. This jersey is very similar to the Tour de France with the only difference that it has blue dots while the Tour de France Polka dot jersey has red dots. Italian
cyclist Edoardo Molinar wore the jersey for the first time when it was introduced in 1935. Jersey is currently white in colour with blue dots however since 2005 the King of Mountain classification winners were awarded with a green jersey which was replaced
by an orange jersey in 2006 and finally in Vuelta a Espana 2010 the jersey was given its present form.
The jersey is third in the ranking of Vuelta a Espana jerseys as it comes after the general classification and points classification jersey. Jose Luis Lagula has won the mountain classification jersey more than any other rider as the Spanish wore the jersey
for five times. Lagula also holds the honour of wearing it for three consecutive times. Antonio Suarez, Julio Jimenez, Antonio Karmany and Jose Maria Jimenez, have also wore the King of Mountains jersey for a consecutive of three times.
4. The fourth classification in the Vuelta is an “all rounder” jersey which is white in colour and is also termed the combination jersey. Winner of white jersey is calculated by adding the points of each cyclist from the general classifications, point’s
classification and mountains classifications and to qualify for the combination or the all rounder jersey, cyclists must score in all other three classifications.
Vuelta a Espana was initially organised in the end of April but as the timings were conflicting with the Giro held in May, organisers have extended the start date of Vuelta which is now seen in September. As World Championships are scheduled in October,
Vuelta is considered as a straight training just before the World Championships.
Race is normally finished in the Capital of Spain, Madrid and consists of a mix up of different stages that include some mountain stages and time trials stages. Vuelta a Espana, 1977 started from Lisbon, Portugal while 2009 witnessed the first ever Vuelta
to start from outside the Iberian Peninsula as the prologue stage of the 64th Vuelta was hosted by Assen. Bilbao and San Sebastian both have also hosted the finish stages of the Vuelta in 1950s and 1970s respectively.
For the first time in the history of Vuelta a Espana, tour this year will visit Basque country which has faced a protest from separatist Basque movements as Basque militants are blaming the cities who are hosting the race.
They believe that the two Vuelta stages held in Basque Country are "the consequence of a political decision from the PSE [Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, left wing] and the PP [People's Party, right wing] to show a political normalization." They also claimed
that the race is not welcome "because Euskal Herria [the Basque Country] is not a community of Spain, but is a nation."
It will be interesting to see how Vuelta organisers handle the protest by Basque country residents as the world sets their eyes on the Vuelta a Espana, 2011.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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