The 23rd edition of Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain), a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the three grand tours, was held from 25 April to 12 May 1968. It consisted of 18 stages covering a total of . Basque nationalist ETA terrorists detonated a bomb along the course on stage 15, causing that day's racing to be annulled. The race was won by Felice Gimondi of the Salvarani cycling team. With this win in the 1968 Vuelta a España, the 1967 Giro d'Italia and the 1965 Tour de France, Gimondi became the second cyclist after Jacques Anquetil to win all three grand tours in his career. Defending champion Jan Janssen won the points competition and 1966 champion Francisco Gabica won the mountains classification.
Teams and riders
Route
+List of stages Stage Date Course Distance Type Winner 1a 25 April Zaragoza to Zaragoza 1b Zaragoza to Zaragoza Individual time trial 2 26 April Zaragoza to Lleida 3a 27 April Lleida to Barcelona 3b Barcelona to Barcelona 4 28 April Barcelona to Salou 5 29 April Salou to Vinaròs 6 30 April Vinaròs to Valencia 7 1 May Valencia to Benidorm 8 2 May Benidorm to Almansa 9 3 May Almansa to Alcázar de San Juan 10 4 May Alcázar de San Juan to Madrid 11 5 May Madrid to Palencia 12 6 May Villalón de Campos to Gijón 13 7 May Gijón to Santander 14 8 May Santander to Vitoria 15 9 May Vitoria to Pamplona Annulled 16 10 May Pamplona to San Sebastián 17 11 May San Sebastián to Tolosa Individual time trial 18 12 May Tolosa to Bilbao Total
Results Final General Classification
RankRiderTeamTime 1 Felice Gimondi Salvarani 78h 29' 00" 2 José Pérez Francés Kas–Kaskol + 2' 15" 3 Eusebio Vélez Fagor + 5' 08" 4 José María Errandonea Fagor + 5' 19" 5 Vittorio Adorni Faema + 5' 26" 6 Jan Janssen Pelforth + 5' 43" 7 Antonio Gómez del Moral Kas–Kaskol + 5' 55" 8 Carlos Echeverría Kas–Kaskol + 6' 00" 9 Lucien Aimar Bic + 6' 40" 10 Jos Spruyt Faema + 7' 50" 11 Luis Otaño Arcelus Fagor 12 Jean-Pierre Ducasse Pelforth 13 Francisco Gabica Fagor 14 Michael Wright Bic 15 Ventura Díaz Arrey Ferrys 16 José Manuel Lopez Fagor 17 José Antonio Momeñe Fagor 18 Rudi Altig Salvarani 19 Andrés Gandarias Kas–Kaskol 20 Cees Haast Bic 21 Fernando Manzaneque Karpy 22 Wilfried Peffgen Salvarani 23 Victor Van Schil Faema 24 Domingo Perurena Fagor 25 Sebastián Elorza Uria Kas–Kaskol
References