1998 Vuelta a España Team III. Each team sent a squad of nine riders, so the Vuelta began with a peloton of 198 cyclists, a total of 108 riders made it to the finish in Madrid. The 22 teams invited to the race were: 1998 Vuelta a España The 53rd edition of the Vuelta a España was held 5 to 27 September 1998 and began in Córdoba and ended in Madrid. The 1998 Vuelta had 22 stages over with the winning average speed of . Spaniard Abraham Olano took the leader's jersey after the first individual time trial with 41 seconds over Frenchman Laurent
Mountains classification in the Tour de France Polka Dot Jersey, during the 1975 Tour de France, was Joop Zoetemelk, and while he never won the King of the Mountains competition in the Tour De France he is considered to be one of the greatest climbers in Tour de France history. Zoetemelk did win the mountains classification in the 1971 Vuelta a Espana, as well as the general classification in the 1979 Vuelta a Espana and the 1980 Tour de France. At the top of many climbs in the Tour, there are points for the riders who are first over the top. The climbs are divided into categories