The 6th Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain), a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the three grand tours, was held from 7 to 30 May 1946. It consisted of 21 stages covering a total of , and was won by Dalmacio Langarica. Emilio Rodríguez won the mountains classification.
After the 22nd stage, Jan Lambrichs was in second place. The Dutch team then received a letter, saying that Lambrichs should give up his second place, otherwise he would reach the finish in Madrid in an ambulance. The team manager decided not to tell Lambrichs about this threat, but gave him extra security. In the final stage, Berrendero escaped and left everybody behind, including Lambrichs, and took over the second place. The next day, the Dutch team received a box of Cuban cigars from the unknown person who had sent the threat.
Teams and riders
Route
+List of stages Stage Date Course Distance Type Winner 1 7 May Madrid to Salamanca 2 8 May Salamanca to Béjar Individual time trial 3 8 May Béjar to Cáceres 4 9 May Cáceres to Badajoz 5 10 May Badajoz to Seville 6 12 May Seville to Granada 7 13 May Granada to Baza 8 14 May Baza to Murcia 9 15 May Murcia to Valencia 10 17 May Valencia to Castellón Team time trial Holland 11 17 May Castellón to Tortosa 12 18 May Tortosa to Barcelona 13 19 May Barcelona to Lleida 14 20 May Lleida to Zaragoza 15 21 May Zaragoza to San Sebastián 16 23 May San Sebastián to Bilbao 17 24 May Bilbao to Santander 18 25 May Santander to Reinosa 19 26 May Reinosa to Gijón 20 28 May Gijón to Oviedo Individual time trial 21 28 May Oviedo to León 22 29 May León to Valladolid 23 30 May Valladolid to Madrid Total
Results Final General Classification
RankRiderTeamTime 1 Dalmacio Langarica 137h 10' 38" 2 Julián Berrendero + 17' 32" 3 Jan Lambrichs + 23' 54" 4 Manuel Costa + 24' 19" 5 Delio Rodríguez + 45' 04" 6 Alejandro Fombellida + 46' 09" 7 Antonio-Andres Sancho + 1h 00' 10" 8 Emilio Rodríguez + 1h 03' 45" 9 José Gutierrez + 1h 18' 48" 10 Joao Rebelo + 1h 53' 37" 11 Georges Aeschlimann 12 Cipriano Aguirrezabal 13 Bernardo Ruiz 14 Pastor Rodríguez 15 Joaquim Olmos 16 Antonio Martin 17 Ernest Kuhn 18 Vicente Miro 19 José Lopez Gandara 20 Frans Pauwels 21 Joaquim Jiménez 22 Pedro Font 23 Cees Joosen 24 Gabriel Palmer 25 Theo Perret
References