- 1987 Vuelta a España
The 42nd "
Vuelta a España " (Tour ofSpain ), a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held fromApril 23 toMay 15 ,1987 . It consisted of 22 stages covering a total of 3,921 km, and was won byLuis Herrera of theCafé de Colombia cycling team . It was the first win of a Grand Tour by aColombia n and also the first of a South American. With the 1986 Vuelta Champion,Álvaro Pino was absent due to health problems, the principal favourites for the overall classification wereLaurent Fignon ,Pedro Delgado and Seán Kelly. Jean Luc Vandenbroucke won the prologue and wore the first leader's jersey. Kelly who was in form after winningParis-Nice for the sixth time won the first stage and took the jersey. The sixth stage saw the beginning of the fight for the overall classification.Luis Herrera in the company ofÁngel Arroyo andVicente Belda attacked several times on the final ascent of the stage. However Kelly was still able to ride into the leader's jersey again. On the following stage to Cerler which was won by the Spaniard Laudelino Cubino, Herrera put time into Kelly and Dietzen finished ahead of Kelly and took the leader's jersey. Herrera took the jersey after the 11th stage that finished on theLagos de Covadonga . However Kelly retook the leader's jersey in the stage 18 time trial and with four stages to go it looked as if he was going to win his first grand tour. However Kelly was forced to withdraw from the race the following day due to a saddle boil. [cite web|url=http://www.sportandpublicity.co.uk/Viva%20la%20Vuelta.html|title=Vive la vuelta|publisher=Sport and Publicity.co.uk|accessdate=2008-01-18] Fignon won the following stage and moved up to third place overall ahead of Delgado. Herrera took back the jersey which he kept to the end to win the race. It was the first win of a Grand Tour by aColombia n and also the first of a South American. [cite web|url=http://www.lavuelta.com/05/ingles/historia/87infor.asp?a=1987&s=infor&t=infor&e=1|title=1987 General Information|publisher=La Vuelta.com|accessdate=2008-01-18]General classification (final)
References
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