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 competition resumed, although again with few foreign competitors in the peloton. On this occasion, Delio Rodriguez took the final victory. That year also introduced the points classification, but this was not stable until 1955. Four editions were run until 1950. Subsequently, there was no Vuelta until 1955, when it was organized by the Basque newspaper "El Correo Español-El Pueblo Vasco". Since then, the Vuelta a España has been run annually. At this time, the Vuelta was run routinely in April and May, while previously it was held variably between April and August. Another difference was the number of participants. Previously,