Analysis: All the winners of the Angliru at the Vuelta a Espana

The first ascent of the Angliru, in 1999, was a historic event for Spanish cycling and for the Vuelta a Espana. All the sports newspapers opened with the Asturian summit that now distant September 12, 1999.

For the first time cyclists faced a long climb with gradients of over 20%. Lately they have become fashionable, but back in the late twentieth century the opening of the Angliru to professional cycling were a novelty.

And to make it more memorable, José María Jiménez, 'El Chava', the favorite of the Spanish fans, that talented climber who gave one of lime and three of sand and whose life ended bitterly, had one of his great days on the Angliru. Mapei's Russian Pável Tonkov had escaped and everything pointed to his victory, but Chava appeared from behind in the dense fog after a brutal acceleration in Cueña les Cabres and ended up taking the victory.

Televisión Española had an audience of more than 4 million viewers that day (no stage of the Vuelta a España 2023 has reached 1 million, almost none of them half a million).

Thus, since 1999 the Angliru has been climbed 7 more times and the only one who has managed to engrave his name 2 times is Alberto Contador. Unforgettable his last triumph as a professional in 2017 when he managed to get rid of the pressure exerted by Chris Froome and ended up taking out his pistols once again.

Among the riders in the Vuelta, Hugh Carthy was the last to win in 2020 and a very young Wout Poels took a late win in 2011 (Juan José Cobo, later disqualified for doping, was at the time the first crossing the lie).