More than a hundred years ago, cycling was a kind of extravagance that crossed the Pyrenees with good fortune and entered the Iberian Peninsula through Catalonia.
The society of the early 19th century in Catalonia was the consequence of a history that spoke of restlessness, entrepreneurs and true visionaries. People that we could call renaissance, who put their stamp and rubric on the engenderings and issues that many years later would follow the prow of society.
In the 10s of the last century, cycling was growing at a good pace in Catalonia, a success story that set foot in many fields and places. Each race was a matter of life or death for its contenders, ragged cyclists who drew miracles by setting off on a route that was sometimes a poorly marked road in the middle of nowhere.
In 1908 the Volta a Tarragona, the prolegomenon and germ of the Volta a Catalunya.
In that era of great men, there was one who stood out for trying everything, surely failing in a thousand things, but leaving for his own a heritage that we continue to enjoy today. It was the case of Narciso Masferrer, who, with the help of Miquel Armteman, gave the start of the first Volta of history.
It all started one Epiphany day...
On January 6, 1911, in the upper area of Barcelona, an icy atmosphere enveloped the first caravan of cyclists of the Volta a Catalunya. There, with the bell tower of Major de Sarrià behind, silent witness, but present in the photos, a crowd of onlookers approached the place to see those 34 riders who would take part in the first stage of the first Volta.
An impertinent cold, ice, non-existent routes awaited the peloton, but also heat and popular fervor, mass baths wherever they passed and expressions of joy overflowed at each finish.
Sebastià Masdeu would win that race, the first of the ninety-nine contested, Josep Magdalena, winner of the second edition, and Vicente Blanco, the mythical "el Cojo", would be with Masdeu on that podium.
The hero called Mariano Cañardo
In 1923 the Secció de Ciclisme of the Unió Esportiva de Sants became cargo organization that had experienced its first interruption due to the First World War. He would never again leave the staging of one of the great races of all times.
From this parenthesis emerged a race of cache, highly valued by national stars, but also with halos of modernity coming, among other places, from France, the true cradle of cycling at continental level.
From how well the French were doing it, from an admiration that was mixed with a direct knowledge of their "savoir faire", Mariano Cañardo would emerge, the first great name of the history of the Volta.
Born in Olite, but settled in Barcelona from his early youth due to life's necessities, Mariano Cañardo won seven Voltas a Catalunya, a number that made him at that time and keeps him, today, at the top of the Catalan race.
Mariano Cañardo made the Volta his private preserve, where he cemented a legend that was not only captured in the newspapers and statistics, but also settled in an affection that transcended the rational, everything that concerned him assaulted the gossip of public life like any other great sports star of the moment.
The Volta from the fifties onwards
Mariano Cañardo opened the cycle of great names of the VoltaThe gallery also shines with the contribution of Miquel Poblet, the "noi de Montcada", a rider touched by a magic incorruptible by the passage of time who amassed a haul of 32 stage wins, another figure that jumps from generation to generation without anyone to cough it up.
Poblet in the fifties and what was to come in the following decade dress up the central greatness of the Volta. There remained memorable editions in the hands of such greats as Eddy Merckx, Felice Gimondi and Luis Ocaña, present in a list of winners that had already included Jacques Anquetil years before and that could include Freddy Maertens and Francesco Moser, on the threshold of the eighties.
Modern times saw two victories by Marino Lejarreta, nine years apart in time, and three by Miguel Indurain, a rung on which he rubs shoulders with Alejandro Valverde, the great dominator of the Volta in recent editions, with three wins.
The pandemic arrived in 2020 and, finally, the Volta a Catalunya 2021 will be the hundredth in the history of an event that attracted masses and filled front pages as only the great events did, a race that made territory, that put places on the map and filled with happiness thousands of fans.
The Volta is today an intangible heritage of Catalonia.
Special Edition Volta 2021 x gobik
His legacy is materialized today in these two designs signed by gobikhis particular contribution to this particular chapter in the history of cycling that celebrates more than 100 years of history: congratulations!
CX PRO 100 editions Volta 2021
CX PRO Best Catalan Volta 2021
Texts: JoanSeguidor's Notebook
Photos: The Volta
