48th Vuelta a Espana 1993

A Rominger-Zulle Classic

The 48th edition of the Vuelta a Espana was held from April 26 to May 15, 1993. The race course consisted of 21 stages covering a total of 3,605 km. Defending champion Tony Rominger started the race as the big favorite to win again this year. Among his major contenders were ONCE’s Alex Zulle, Jesus Montoya and Pedro Delgado.

A very fit Alex Zulle (Sui) controlled the early race lead after a strong ride in the Prologue Time Trial. He extended his lead by winning the 24.1 km ITT on the Alto Navacerrada.

The high mountains started on Stage 11 on the climb to Cerler. Rominger started his attack on the Maillot Amarillo. He broke away on the climb with 10 km to go and dropped the race leader. Rominger won the stage and gain 47” on Zulle. He trailed by only 18” in the General Classification. Pedro Delgado was off his physical form of recent years and finished the stage 2’11” behind the winner.

The 197.2 km Stage 14 from Tadela to Valdezcaray saw Rominger continue his charge to the race lead. In the closing kilometers of the climb to Valdezcaray Rominger attacked and won the stage.

His time gain on this stage was 37” and the race leader’s Maillot Amarillo moved to his shoulders.

The final stage was a 44.6 km Individual Time Trial. Rominger struggled and went through the only difficulties of his entire race. Zulle, a master of the “race against the clock”, rode very well, leading through all the time checks. Zulle took the stage win and realized a time-gain of 48”. The time-gain was not enough to unseat the leader. Rominger held his race lead by 29”.

Tony Rominger´s second consecutive Vuelta a Espana victory was very sharp in 1993 and by less than a minute.

SPECIAL NOTE: Rominger’s brilliant 1993 Vuelta a Espana was indicated by his dominance in all three Vuelta classifications (GC, Mountain, and Points). He became only the second rider to achieve the feat after Eddy Merckx in the 1969 Tour de France and the 1968 Giro d'Italia.

Stage and Distance	Stage Winner	Race Leader
Stage 1 La Coruna, 10 km ITT	Alex Zulle (Sui)	Alex Zulle (Sui)
Stage 2 La Coruna-Vigo, 251.1 km	Alfonso Gutierrez (Spa)	Alex Zulle (Sui)
Stage 3 Vigo-Orense, 171.4 km	Laurent Jalabert (Fra)	Alex Zulle (Sui)
Stage 4 La Gudina-Salamanca, 233.4 km	Jean-Paul Van Poppel (Ned)	Alex Zulle (Sui)
Stage 5 Salamanca-Avila, 219.8 km	Marino Alonso (Spa)	Alex Zulle (Sui)
Stage 6 DYC-Alto Navacerrada, 24.1 km	Alex Zulle (Sui)	Alex Zulle (Sui)
Stage 7 DYC-Madrid, 184 km	Laurent Jalabert (Fra)	Alex Zulle (Sui)
Stage 8 Aranjuez-Albacete, 225.1 km	Jean-Paul Van Poppel (Ned)	Alex Zulle (Sui)
Stage 9 Albacete-Valencia, 224 km	Djamolidine Abdoujaparov (Uzb)	Alex Zulle (Sui)
Stage 10 Valencia-La Senia, 206 km	Juan-Carlos Gonzalez-Salvador (Spa)	Alex Zulle (Sui)
Stage 11 Lerida-Cerler, 221 km	Tony Rominger (Sui)	Alex Zulle (Sui)
Stage 12 Benasque-Zaragoza, 220.7 km	Djamolidine Abdoujaparov (Uzb)	Alex Zulle (Sui)
Stage 13 Zaragoza-Zaragoza, 37.1 km ITT	Melchor Mauri (Spa)	Alex Zulle (Sui)
Stage 14 Tuleda-Valdezcaray, 197.2 km	Tony Rominger (Sui)	Tony Rominger (Sui)
Stage 15 St Domingo Calzada-Santander, 226.2 km	Dag-Otto Lauritzen (Nor)	Tony Rominger (Sui)
Stage 16 Santander-Alto Campoo, 160 km	Jesus Montoya (Spa)	Tony Rominger (Sui)
Stage 17 Santander-Lagos de Covadonga, 179.5 km	Oliverio Rincon (Spa)	Tony Rominger (Sui)
Stage 18 Cangos de Onis-Gijon, 170 km	Serguei Outschakov (Ukr)	Tony Rominger (Sui)
Stage 19 Gijon-Alto del Naranco, 153 km	Tony Rominger (Sui)	Tony Rominger (Sui)
Stage 20 Salas-Ferrol, 247 km	Djamolidine Abdoujaparov (Uzb)	Tony Rominger (Sui)
Stage 21 Padron-Santiago Compostela, 44.6 km ITT	Alex Zulle (Sui)	Tony Rominger (Sui)
	BEST CLIMBER PRIZE	Tony Rominger (Sui)
	POINTS COMPETITION	Tony Rominger (Sui)

VaE 1992

VaE 1994

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