Tour of the Basque Country
| 300px | |
| Race details | |
|---|---|
| Date | Early-April |
| Region | Spanish Basque Country |
| English name | Tour of the Basque Country |
| Local name(s) |
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| Discipline | Road |
| Competition | UCI World Tour |
| Type | Stage race |
| History | |
| First edition | 1924 |
| Editions | 55 (as of 2015) |
| First winner |  Francis Pélissier (FRA) |
| Most wins | 23x15px José Antonio González (ESP) (4 wins) |
| Most recent |  Joaquim Rodríguez (ESP) |
The Tour of the Basque Country (Spanish: Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco, Basque: Euskal Herriko Itzulia) is an annual cycling stage race held in the Spanish Basque Country in April.
It is one of 24 races that make up the UCI World Ranking calendar.
History
The original Tour of the Basque Country had a troubled history, with 8 editions contested between 1924 and 1935, before the civil war seemingly wiped it out for good. In spite of its short tenure, it is mentioned and described in Ernest Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises.
In 1952, the Eibar Cycling Club (erstwhile backers of Spain's first national stage race, the pre-Vuelta a España Gran Premio República) launched a new 3-day event called Gran Premio de la Bicicleta Eibarresa to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Former French national champion Louis Caput took the inaugural edition.
In 1969, organizers opted to promote the race (by then 5 stages long) as IX Vuelta al País Vasco - XVIII Bicicleta Eibarresa, effectively merging the Bicicleta Eibarresa into a reborn Tour of the Basque Country.
However, the palmares of the Bicicleta Eibarresa (featuring Vuelta a España winners Jesús Loroño and Rolf Wolfshohl) is not recognized as part of the Tour of the Basque Country's history.
The Eibar Cycling Club would relinquish control of the competition following the 1973 edition, while retaining the rights to the Bicicleta Eibarresa name, which has sporadically been reactivated to help promote other, lower ranked events.
The first winner of the Tour of the Basque Country was Francis Pélissier from France, while the first winner of the 'modern' Tour (1969) was Jacques Anquetil, also of France. The most successful rider in the history of the Tour is José Antonio González Linares of Spain, who won the race four times in 1972, 1975, 1977 and 1978. The most recent edition (2015) was won by Spain's Joaquim Rodríguez, his first win in the race.
The winner traditionally dons a basque beret on the podium.
Because the Basque Country is a mountainous area, there are few flat stages, and thus the event favors those who are strong climbers. Most ascents in the Tour are not particularly high by professional cycling standards, but are often quite steep.
Winners
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vuelta al País Vasco. |
- Official website (Spanish)
- Tour of the Basque Country Palmares at Cycling ArchivesLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with Spanish-language external links
- Articles with Basque-language external links
- Articles containing Spanish-language text
- Articles containing Basque-language text
- Articles with hCards
- Commons category link is locally defined
- Official website not in Wikidata
- Recurring sporting events established in 1924
- Tour of the Basque Country
- UCI ProTour races
- Cycle races in the Basque Country
- UCI World Tour races
- 1924 establishments in Spain
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