1973 Vuelta a España to win the 1973 Giro d'Italia and became the first cyclist to win the Vuelta-Giro double. Merckx also won the points classification and José Luis Abilleira won the mountains classification. With Merckx finishing first, Ocaña second and Thévenet third the podium of the 1973 Vuelta contained one previous winner and two future winners of the Tour de France making it one of the best podiums in the history of the race, according to the official race website. Gerben Karstens won 4 stages in this Vuelta A total of eight teams were invited to participate in the 1973 Vuelta a España.
Vuelta a España jersey began as orange in 1935, became white in 1941, then back to orange in 1942. It was white with a horizontal red stripe from 1945–1950. In 1955, when the Courier resurrected the Vuelta, yellow became the color of the leader's jersey, the same color as in the Tour de France. Except for the 1977 Vuelta, when the jersey was orange, a yellow jersey was worn until 1998, when the color was deepened to a gold hue. However, for the 2010 edition, the colour of the leader's jersey was changed to red. Since the 1950 Vuelta, the leaders of the