1981 1981 Vuelta a España The 36th Vuelta a España , a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from April 21 to May 10, 1981... << Vuelta a España 1982 >> 1983 1983 Vuelta a España The 38th Vuelta a España , a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from April 19 to May 8, 1983...
Classifications	19 stages, 3456 km
General	Marino Lejarreta Marino Lejarreta Marino Lejarreta Arrizabalaga is a retired Spanish professional road racing cyclist. His biggest victory was capturing the 1982 Vuelta a España, a Grand Tour stage race, and he is the inaugural and record three-time winner of the Clásica de San Sebastián , which is now considered a one-day classic... 95:47:23 h
Points	Stefan Mutter Stefan Mutter Stefan Mutter was a Swiss professional road bicycle racer.- Palmarès :19781981... 172 p.
Mountains	José Luis Laguía José Luis Laguía José Luis Laguía Martínez is a retired Spanish cyclist. A climber, he won a record five mountains classifications at the Vuelta a España during his career.-References:* at Cycling Archives**... 90 p.
Teams	Kelme 287:14:05 h

The 37th Vuelta a España

Vuelta a España

The Vuelta a España is a three-week road bicycle racing stage race that is one of the three "Grand Tours" of Europe and part of the UCI World Ranking calendar. The race lasts three weeks and attracts cyclists from around the world. The race is broken into day-long segments, called stages...

(Tour of Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

), a long-distance bicycle

Bicycle racing

Bicycle racing is a competition sport in which various types of bicycles are used. There are several categories of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, bike trials, and cycle speedway. Bicycle racing is recognised as an Olympic sport...

 stage

Stage (bicycle race)

In sports, a stage, or leg, or heat, is a unit of a race which has been divided in several parts for the reason such as length of the distance to be covered, as in a multi-day event. Usually, such a race consists of "ordinary" stages, but sometimes stages are held as an individual time trial or a...

 race and one of the 3 grand tours

Grand Tour (cycling)

In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour refers to one of the three major European professional cycling stage races:* Tour de France – Tour of France , held in July* Giro d'Italia – Tour of Italy , held in May...

, was held from April 20 to May 9, 1982. It consisted of 19 stages covering a total of 3456 km, and was won by Marino Lejarreta

Marino Lejarreta

Marino Lejarreta Arrizabalaga is a retired Spanish professional road racing cyclist. His biggest victory was capturing the 1982 Vuelta a España, a Grand Tour stage race, and he is the inaugural and record three-time winner of the Clásica de San Sebastián , which is now considered a one-day classic...

 of the Teka cycling team

Cycling team

A cycling team is a group of cyclists who join a team or are acquired and train together to compete in bicycle races whether recreational or professional - and the supporting personnel...

.

The Reynolds team controlled the race after team leader Angel Arroyo

Ángel Arroyo

Angel Arroyo Lanchas is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer. In the 1983 Tour de France, Arroyo won one stage and finished 2nd place in the general classification....

 took the leader’s jersey on the tenth stage. Arroyo kept the jersey until the finish of the race where he won the final individual time trial. Arroyo won the grand tour ahead of Marino Lejarreta

Marino Lejarreta

Marino Lejarreta Arrizabalaga is a retired Spanish professional road racing cyclist. His biggest victory was capturing the 1982 Vuelta a España, a Grand Tour stage race, and he is the inaugural and record three-time winner of the Clásica de San Sebastián , which is now considered a one-day classic...

 and Michel Pollentier

Michel Pollentier

Michel Pollentier is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer. He became professional in 1973. The highlight of his career was his overall win in the 1977 Giro d'Italia....

. However 48 hours after his win, it emerged that in the doping control that was conducted after the stage 17 Arroyo tested positive. Three other riders also failed the doping test after stage 17 - Alberto Fernández, Vicente Belda

Vicente Belda

-External links:...

 and Pedro Muñoz.

The four riders were said to have tested positive for Methylphenidate

Methylphenidate

Methylphenidate is a psychostimulant drug approved for treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome and narcolepsy. It may also be prescribed for off-label use in treatment-resistant cases of lethargy, depression, neural insult and obesity...

 (which is also known as Ritalin) a stimulant. Methylphenidate was a popular drug for doping in cycling at that time.
Arroyo and his team denied the allegations and asked for a second analysis of the sample. The B analysis confirmed the first positive test.
Arroyo was assigned a 10 minute penalty and stripped of his Vuelta win which was given to Lejarreta. With the 10 minute penalty Arroyo went down to 13th place in the classification.
The disqualification of the winner of the Vuelta has been called the worst scandal that has ever hit the race on the official La Vuelta website.

Final General Classification

Rank	Rider	Team	Time
1	Marino Lejarreta Marino Lejarreta Marino Lejarreta Arrizabalaga is a retired Spanish professional road racing cyclist. His biggest victory was capturing the 1982 Vuelta a España, a Grand Tour stage race, and he is the inaugural and record three-time winner of the Clásica de San Sebastián , which is now considered a one-day classic...	Teka	95h 47' 23s
2	Michel Pollentier Michel Pollentier Michel Pollentier is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer. He became professional in 1973. The highlight of his career was his overall win in the 1977 Giro d'Italia....	Safir-Concorde	a 18s
3	Sven-Åke Nilsson Sven-Åke Nilsson Sven-Åke Nilsson is an Swedish retired road racing cyclist. He was a professional cyclist from 1977 until his retirement 1984 with a stage win and 3rd place in the Overall classification in Vuelta a España and two stage wins in Paris-Nice as career highlights.-Palmares:1972 1974 1976 Sven-Åke...	Wolber-Spidel	a 1' 17s
4	Faustino Ruperez Rincon	Zor-Helios	a 2' 14s
5	José Luis Laguía José Luis Laguía José Luis Laguía Martínez is a retired Spanish cyclist. A climber, he won a record five mountains classifications at the Vuelta a España during his career.-References:* at Cycling Archives**...	Reynolds-Galli	a 2' 37s
6	Pierre-Raymond Villemiane	Wolber-Spidel	a 2' 43s
7	Stefan Mutter	Puch-Eurotex	a 4' 18s
8	Jaime Vilamajo Ipiens	Kelme-Merckx	a 4' 19s
9	Marc Durant	Wolber-Spidel	a 5' 10s
10	Alvaro Pino Alvaro Pino Álvaro Pino Couñago is a former professional road racing cyclist from Spain who raced between 1981 through 1991 and is most famous for winning the overall title at the 1986 Vuelta a España over favorites Robert Millar from Great Britain, Laurent Fignon from France and Sean Kelly from Ireland...	Zor-Helios	a 5' 53s
11	Enrique Martinez Heredia	Kelme-Merckx
12	Celestino Prieto Rodriquez	Kelme-Merckx
13	Angel Arroyo Ángel Arroyo Angel Arroyo Lanchas is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer. In the 1983 Tour de France, Arroyo won one stage and finished 2nd place in the general classification....	Reynolds-Galli
14	Eduardo Chozas	Zor-Helios
15	Alberto Fernandez	Teka
16	Paul Wellens	Splendor-Wickes
17	Bernardo Alfonsel Lopez	Teka
18	Vicente Belda Vicente Belda -External links:...	Kelme-Merckx
19	Ismal Lejarreta	Teka
20	Juan Fernandez	Kelme-Merckx
21	Jo Maas	Splendor-Wickes
22	Dominique Arnaud	Wolber-Spidel
23	Luis-Vicente Otin	Hueso
24	Benny Van Brabant	Splendor-Wickes
25	Pedro Munoz Rodriguez	Zor-Helios

External links

• La Vuelta (Official site in Spanish, English, and French)