1985 Vuelta a España

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1984 << Vuelta a España 1985 >> 1986
Classifications	19 etapas, 3474 km
General	Pedro Delgado 95:58:00 h
Points	Seán Kelly 223 p.
Mountains	José Luis Laguía 85 p.
Teams	Zor - Gemeaz 287:57:06 h

The 40th Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain), a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from April 23 to May 12, 1985. It consisted of 19 stages covering a total of 3,474 km, and was won by Pedro Delgado of the Orbea cycling team.

The Spanish favourites for the general classification of the race were Pedro Delgado, Faustino Rupérez and Pello Ruiz Cabestany and the potential foreign favourites included Sean Kelly, Eric Caritoux, Peter Winnen and Gianbattista Baronchelli. A young Miguel Indurain took the lead early in the race. Pedro Delgado won the stage to the Lagos de Covadonga. Delgado lost the lead the following day and Scot Robert Millar took the lead after the tenth stage. Entering the second last stage Millar only had to keep an eye on Colombian Rodriguez who was only ten seconds down on Millar and Cabestany who was a minute behind.^[1] However when Pedro Delgado attacked after Millar returned to the front group after a puncture there was, what has since been referred to as a collusion^[2] between the rival Spanish teams to ensure that Delgado made up the six minutes on the general classification to Millar and take the lead. The Colombian Rodriguez was instructed by his manager not to assist in bridging up to Delgado and saw his chances of a Vuelta win disappear.^[3] Millar who was isolated from Peugeot teammates was powerless to try to reduce the deficit to Delgado as he was surrounded by riders who would not cooperate in the chase. It has been said that Millar's team manager should have bought the support of other teams.^[4] Delgado took the jersey that evening and won the Vuelta the following day with Millar a narrow 36 seconds behind him.^[5]

[edit] General classification (final)

Rank	Rider	Team	Time
1	Pedro Delgado	Orbea	95h58'00"
2	Robert Millar	Peugeot-Shell-Michelin	'36"
3	Francisco Rodríguez	Zor	'46"
4	Pello Ruiz Cabestany	Orbea	1'51"
5	Fabio Parra	Café de Colombia	3'40"
6	Eric Caritoux	Skil-Sem-Reydel	6'08"
7	Raimund Dietzen	Teka	6'36"
8	Álvaro Pino	Zor	7'41"
9	Seán Kelly	Skil-Sem-Reydel	7'52"
10	José Luis Navarro	Zor	8'56"
11	Julian Gorospe Artabe	Reynolds
12	Celestino Prieto Rodriguez	Reynolds
13	Gerard Veldscholten	Panasonic
14	Pascal Simon	Peugeot-Shell-Michelin
15	Pierre Bazzo	Fagor
16	Juan Tomas Martinez Gutierrez	Hueso-Motta
17	Antonio Coll Pontanilla	Teka
18	Vicente Belda	Kelme-Merckx
19	Faustino Ruperez Rincon	Zor
20	Ivan Ivanov
21	Ignacio Gaston Crespo	Reynolds
22	Angel De Las Heras	Hueso-Motta
23	Martin Ramirez Ramirez	Café de Colombia
24	Dominique Garde	Skil-Sem-Reydel
25	Gilles Mas	Skil-Sem-Reydel

[edit] References

Vuelta a España v • d • e

1935 • 1936 • 1937 • 1938 • 1939 • 1940 • 1941 • 1942 • 1943 • 1944 • 1945 • 1946 • 1947 • 1948 • 1949 • 1950  1951 • 1952 • 1953 • 1954 • 1955 • 1956 • 1957 • 1958 • 1959 • 1960 • 1961 • 1962 • 1963 • 1964 • 1965 • 1966  1967 • 1968 • 1969 • 1970 • 1971 • 1972 • 1973 • 1974 • 1975 • 1976 • 1977 • 1978 • 1979 • 1980 • 1981 • 1982  1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1989 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998  1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009