The day José Luis Abilleira prevented Eddy Merckx from winning all the classifications of the 1973 Vuelta a Espana

Cycling
Friday, 27 October 2023 at 13:30
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The colleagues of Pedal Vingage have recalled through their Twitter account the story of José Luis Abilleira, the man who prevented Eddy Merckx from taking all the classifications of the 1973 Vuelta a España. The Cannibal, who finished his career with 5 Tour de France and 5 Giro d'Italia, rode his only Vuelta that 1973 in which he would do a double with the Giro.

Merckx won the Vuelta with clarity with almost 4 minutes of advantage over Luis Ocaña and something more with Bernard Thévenet, in a podium that could have been of the Grande Boucle. Thus, the insatiable Belgian dominated that Spanish round with clarity taking 6 stages and almost all the classifications at stake: Points, Metas Volantes and Combined. The only one he failed to win was the Mountain classification, which went to our protagonist, José Luis Abilleira.

The Madrid-born rider, who turns 76 today, was the one who scored the most points in that classification (97), to Merckx's 83. However, in those days you had to finish the race in the top 15 to win the classification.

Thus, there was a team tactic in the La Casera - Bahamontes. The 15th overall was Juan Santiago Zurano, Abilleira's teammate, who left some time so that his colleague could finish the Vuelta 15th and thus take home the final Mountain jersey. Curious story of a Vuelta in which Merckx wanted to sweep everything and was very close to achieving it.

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