23rd Vuelta a Espana 1968

Terrorists Can't Stop LA VUELTA

The World was full of protests in 1968. The demonstrations of “The French May” were featured in a year filled with student protests and social upheaval. The 23rd edition of La Vuelta a Espana (April 25 to May 12, 1968) fell under the revolutionary social atmosphere of the time.

SPECIAL NOTE: Stage 15 from Vitoria to Pamplona was the target of terrorists and nearly ended in tragedy. A Basque freedom organization Euskadi Ta Aaskatasuna—ETA (meaning Basque Fatherland and Freedom) placed an explosive devise on the race route. Fortunately the devise exploded just minutes before the peloton arrived. There were no injuries but incident caused the cancellation of the stage. The terrorists couldn't stop the Vuelta.

The incident disrupted the race but could not spoil one of the most brilliant editions of Vuelta a Espana. The race featured great individual efforts and the results remained up for grabs well into the late stages.

A very intense battle was developing as the race got to its highest peaks on Stage 12. Meeting the mountains for the first time in 1968 Spanish climber Jose Pérez-Francés attacked and made his first attempt to breakaway. Through mist, wind, hail, and snow Pérez-Francés rode over the summit of the Puerto de Pajares alone and proceeded to plunge perilously down the mountain. Pérez-Francés held on to win the stage at the finish in Gijón and took the Amarillo race leader's Jersey by a slim 20 seconds over Rudi Altig. His lead to Italian Felice Gimondi was over a minute. Joyful fans thought the race champion had been decided. Italian star Felice Gimondi, winner of the TdF 1965 and the Giro 1967, had other ideas.

Two stages later, the difficult route between Santander and Vitoria, Gimondi, trailing in the overall by 3'03”, launched an attack of his own. Gimondi was away with 50 km remaining in the stage. A five rider breakaway formed and hit the base of the Orduña climb nearly 2 minutes ahead of the race leader's group. Gimondi escaped alone on the climb and caught four of the five breakaway riders. He finished 4th on the stage and well ahead of the race leader. He donned the Amarillo Jersey for the first time.

The concerns of the terrorist's distraction of Stage 15 were put aside as the penultimate Stage 17, a 67 km time trial between San Sebastian and Tolosa, saw Gimondi win the stage and increase his GC advantage to more than two minutes.

One stage later Felice Gimondi (Ita) rode into Bilboa to become only the second rider in the history of cycling (after Jacques Anquetil (Fra)) to win each of the three Grand Tours.

Stage 1a Zaragoza-Zaragoza, 130 km	Jan Janssen (Ned)	Jan Janssen (Ned)
Stage 1b Zaragoza-Zaragoza, 4 km ITT	Jan Janssen (Ned)	Jan Janssen (Ned)
Stage 2 Zaragoza-Lerida, 195 km	Michael Wright (GBr)	Jan Janssen (Ned)
Stage 3a Lerida-Barcelona, 165 km	Tomaso De Pra (Spa)	Jan Janssen (Ned)
Stage 3b Barcelona/Montjuich, 38 km	Rudi Altig (Ger)	Rudi Altig (Ger)
Stage 4 Barcelona-Salou, 108 km	Michael Wright (GBr)	Michael Wright (GBr)
Stage 5 Salou-Vinaroz, 106 km	Rudi Altig (Ger)	Rudi Altig (Ger)
Stage 6 Vinaroz-Valencia, 148 km	Pietro Guerra (Spa)	Rudi Altig (Ger)
Stage 7 Valencia-Benidorm, 144 km	Wilfried Peffgen (Ger)	Rudi Altig (Ger)
Stage 8 Benidorm-Almansa, 167 km	Manuel Martin-Pinera (Spa)	Manuel Martin-Pinera (Spa)
Stage 9 Almansa-Alcazar de San Juan , 230 km	Jose-Maria Errandonea (Spa)	Rudi Altig (Ger)
Stage 10 Alcazar San Juan-Madrid, 173 km	Domingo Perurena (Spa)	Rudi Altig (Ger)
Stage 11 Madrid-Valencia, 242 km	Ramon Saez (Spa)	Rudi Altig (Ger)
Stage 12 Villalon de Campos-Gijon, 236 km	Jose Perez-Frances (Spa)	Jose Perez-Frances (Spa)
Stage 13 Gijon-Santander, 203 km	Victor Van Schil (Bel)	Jose Perez-Frances (Spa)
Stage 14 Santander-Vitoria, 244 km	Eduardo Castello (Spa)	Felice Gimondi (Ita)
Stage 15 Vitoria-Pamplona, Canceled	Stage Canceled (Bad road)	Felice Gimondi (Ita)
Stage 16 Pamplona-San Sebastian, 204 km	Luis-Pedro Santamarina (Spa)	Felice Gimondi (Ita)
Stage 17 San Sebastian-Tolosa, 67 km ITT	Felice Gimondi (Ita)	Felice Gimondi (Ita)
Stage 18 Tolosa-Bilbao, 206 km	Manuel Martin-Pinera (Spa)	Felice Gimondi (Ita)
	BEST CLIMBER PRIZE	Francisco Gabica (Spa)
	POINTS COMPETITION	Jan Janssen (Ned)

VaE 1967

VaE 1969

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