1996 Vuelta a España

1996 Vuelta a España

Race details
Dates	7 - 29 September
Stages	22
Distance	3,898 km (2,422 mi)
Winning time	97h 31' 46"
Results
Winner  Alex Zülle (SUI) (ONCE)   Second  Laurent Dufaux (SUI) (Festina–Lotus)   Third  Tony Rominger (SUI) (Mapei–GB) Points  Laurent Jalabert (FRA) (ONCE) Mountains  Tony Rominger (SUI) (Mapei–GB)   Sprints  Jürgen Werner (GER) (Team Telekom)   Team Team Polti

The 51st Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain), a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from September 6 to September 28, 1996. It consisted of 22 stages covering a total of 3,898 km, and was won by Alex Zülle of the ONCE cycling team.^[1]

Five-time Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain started his home tour for the first time since finishing second in 1991, having just recently been dislodged at the Tour by Bjarne Riis. He was initially reluctant to start, but convinced by his team to do so after a strong performance during the time trial at the Olympic Games in Atlanta. However, Indurain would eventually abandon the race, which would prove to be the last of his career, on stage 13 while lying in third place overall, having been dropped by the rest of the race favourites on the first-category climb of the Fito pass.^[2]

Rank	Rider	Team	Time
1	Alex Zülle	ONCE	97h 31' 46s
2	Laurent Dufaux	Festina	a 6' 23s
3	Tony Rominger	Mapei–GB	a 8' 29s
4	Roberto Pistore	MG Maglificio–Technogym	a 10' 13s
5	Stefano Faustini	AKI - Gipièmme	a 11' 21s
6	Georg Totschnig	Team Polti	a 11' 33s
7	Davide Rebellin	Team Polti	a 13' 16s
8	Andrea Peron	Motorola	a 14' 46s
9	Bobby Julich	Motorola	a 15' 10s
10	Fernando Escartín	Kelme-Artiach	a 18' 35s
11	Marcos Serrano	Kelme-Artiach	a 19' 19s
12	José María Jiménez	Banesto	a 20' 19s
13	Mauro Gianetti	Team Polti	a 21' 15s
14	Daniel Clavero	MX Onda	a 21' 49s
15	Daniele Nardello	Mapei–GB	a 22' 37s
16	Vladislav Bobrik	Gewiss Playbus	a 26' 00s
17	Axel Merckx	Motorola	a 27' 34s
18	Francisco Javier Mauleón	Mapei–GB	a 27' 38s
19	Laurent Jalabert	ONCE	a 27' 44s
20	Peter Meinert Nielsen	Team Telekom	a 29' 56s
21	Pascal Chanteur	Casino
22	Fabian Jeker	Festina-Lotus
23	Kai Hundertmarck	Team Telekom
24	Ángel Casero	Banesto
25	Massimo Apollonio	Scrigno–Blue Storm

References

1. ↑ http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/results/archives/sep96/spain.html
2. ↑ Cossins, Peter (24 August 2014). "Vuelta a Espana iconic stages: Indurain quits the Vuelta and racing". cyclingnews.com. Archived from the original on 27 April 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2017. 

External links

• La Vuelta (Official site in Spanish, English, and French)