Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: How many teams participated in Vuelta a Espana in 2012?
All eighteen UCI ProTeams were automatically invited and were obliged to attend the race. Four UCI Professional Continental teams were given wildcard places into the race, to complete a 22-team peloton.
Sánchez joined Dutch team for the 2011 season. Once again he won the national time trial championships in 2011. He also won Stage 9 of the Tour de France, but was unable to repeat his high overall placing of 2010, managing only 57th overall. Likewise, he rode the Vuelta a Espana and finished 53rd overall.
The 39th "Vuelta a España" (Tour of Spain), a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from 17 April to 6 May 1984. It consisted of 19 stages covering a total of 3,593 km, and was won by Éric Caritoux of the Skil-Sem cycling team. Caritoux, a second year professional, had shown his climbing talent earlier that year by winning the stage up the Mont-Ventoux of the 1984 Paris–Nice but he did not enter the 1984 Vuelta a Espana thinking of the overall classification. On the 12th stage to Lagos de Covadonga an area in Asturias which includes one of the most important climbs of the Vuelta, Caritoux finished second behind the German Raimund Dietzen who was also riding his first Vuelta a España. Caritoux took the leader’s jersey from Pedro Delgado. Alberto Fernández was 32 seconds behind Caritoux in the general classification at that stage. Fernández had been third the year previously in the Vuelta a España and in the Giro d'Italia. On the stage 14 mountain time trial, Caritoux lost five seconds. Caritoux lost further time in the final individual time trial but still managed to finish the race with a slender lead of six seconds over Fernández, the smallest margin in the history of the Vuelta a España. Fernández died later on in 1984.
Born in Seville, Piedra has competed as a professional since 2007, competing for the Fuerteventura-Canarias and teams, before joining the team for the 2012 season. Piedra took a prestigious victory by winning the Rogaland GP in May 2012, soloing away to win by 35 seconds over his nearest challenger. He participated in the 2012 Vuelta a España, his team being invited as a 'wildcard', and had a major victory on stage 15, a high mountain affair finishing atop the Lakes of Covadonga climb. Piedra followed a move that formed on the first climb of the day, and dropped his breakaway companions on the final difficulty of the race, the first "Hors Category" climb of the Vuelta. He had 2 minutes and 2 seconds of an advantage over his nearest competitor, 's Rubén Pérez.
The team rode in 1989 and 1990 with it Soviet riders and introduced riders such as Andrei Tchmil, Piotr Ugrumov, Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Viktor Klimov, Dimitri Konyshev, Vladimir Poulnikov, Ivan Ivanov to the sport. Over the two years the team had much success and surprised the cycling world. Klimov held the leaders jersey for five days in the 1990 Vuelta a Espana. Poulnikov finished fourth overall in the 1990 Giro d’Italia. Asyat Saitov won a stage in the 1990 Vuelta a España, Konyshev finished second in the 1989 UCI Road World Championships road race in Chambéry, France.
The 2012 Vuelta a España was the 67th edition of the Vuelta a España, one of the cycling's Grand Tours. The Vuelta a España features 198 riders competing from 22 cycling teams; the race took place from 18 August to 9 September, starting in Pamplona and finishing in Madrid.
The 18 UCI WorldTeams were automatically invited to participate in the Vuelta. In addition, the race organisers, invited four wildcard teams. These included , the only Spanish-registered UCI Professional Continental team. Also invited were the French team , Irish team and Colombian team .
The following teams and cyclists took part in the 2017 Vuelta a España:
Craven joined the team for the 2009 season. Craven was the 2008 African Road Race champion, having taken the crown in Casablanca in November just two days after he had picked up a Bronze in the African Time Trial Championships. He joined for the 2012 season. He spent 2013 riding for before joining the German-based squad for 2014. In May 2014 it was announced that Craven had been signed to UCI World Tour team, , with effect from July. His first major goal was the last grand tour of 2014, the Vuelta a Espana.
Spanish team ONCE with Beloki, Gonzalez and Abraham Olano, and American team US Postal with Armstrong, a young Floyd Landis, Viatcheslav Ekimov and the dominant Spanish rider Roberto Heras, a former Vuelta a Espana champion, would have the battle for the 2002 Tour de France in the mountains.
The winner of the 2008 edition of the race, Alberto Contador, made his first Grand Tour appearance since his ban after testing positive for a banned substance at the 2010 Tour de France, and was considered by many the top favourite for overall victory. Another favourite was Chris Froome, who finished second in the 2011 Vuelta and 2012 Tour de France, and he started the 2012 Vuelta as team leader of Team Sky, having previously worked for Bradley Wiggins. The winner of the 2011 edition, Juan José Cobo, was looking to replicate his previous year's form after a disappointing 2012 season, and he was co-leader of the Movistar Team alongside Alejandro Valverde.
Iñigo González de Heredia (born 15 March 1971 in Gasteiz) is a former Spanish racing cyclist. He participated three times in a Grand Tour, but only finished the 1995 Vuelta a Espana, where he finished in 70th place.
Joop Zoetemelk rode for the team from 1970-1972 finishing on the podium twice in the Tour de France during this span. He also finished 5th in the 1972 Tour de France and won the King of the Mountains classification in the 1971 Vuelta a Espana.
A total of 19 teams were invited to participate in the 2008 Vuelta a España. Sixteen of the competing squads were UCI ProTour teams, while the other three teams were UCI Professional Continental taems. Each team sent a squad of nine riders, so the Vuelta began with a peloton of 171 cyclists. Out of the 171 riders that started this edition of the Giro d'Italia, a total of 131 riders made it to the finish in Madrid. chose not participate in the race, as they withdrew their application to compete in the Vuelta in order to race the Tours of Ireland, Britain, and Missouri. While - formerly known as Saunier Duval-Scott - was excluded from the event as a result of the doping cases of Riccardo Riccò and Leonardo Piepoli in the 2008 Tour de France.
Sixteen teams participated in the 2012 Vuelta a Andalucía, consisting of seven UCI ProTour teams, eight UCI Professional Continental teams, and one UCI Continental Team.
In two years the squad ran 7 races out of Colombia, being three in 2011 (Tour of Venezuela, Vuelta a Chiriquí and Tour of Costa Rica) and four in 2012 (Vuelta al Tachira Vuelta del Uruguay, Classic International Tulcán y Vuelta al Mundo Maya). Although the team's goal was be part of the principal races of the Latin American calendar, this could not be accomplished for different reasons;, organizational, logistical, legal as well as geographical. Therefore, in October 22, 2012 it was announced that the team would disband in 2013, with the last race that the team would participate in being the Vuelta al Mundo Maya.
A professional for five seasons, Ovies is best known for winning the mountain classification at the 1977 Giro d'Italia, and the 1980 Vuelta Ciclista a Aragón. His best placing on a grand tour was 12th at the 1980 Vuelta a Espana.
A total of 17 teams were invited to participate in the 1994 Vuelta a España. Each team sent a squad of ten riders, so the Vuelta began with a peloton of 170 cyclists. Out of the 170 riders that started this edition of the Vuelta a España, a total of 121 riders made it to the finish in Madrid.
Lastras won a stage in the 2003 Tour de France and picked up two stages in the 2002 Vuelta a España. In 2005 he won stage 8 at Tour de Suisse. He also won the Vuelta a Burgos in 2003. His idols are Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. He has a resting heart rate of 45bpm, and is 1.83m tall weighs 68 kg. In 2007 the team had announced that they would let him go, but after a stage win in Eneco Tour his contract was renewed for another year. Lastras had later success in overall classification in Vuelta a Andalucía and second place in the Giro d'Italia stage. In 2011, Lastras won stage 3 of La Vuelta de Espana.
The team participated in the 2000 Vuelta a España and Andrei Zinchenko won the 14th stage, which ended in Lagos de Covadonga. The victory of the Russian, (winner of three stages in 1998), was the first victory of a Portuguese team in the history of the Vuelta. In 2001 the team was not invited to participate in the Vuelta a España, so it pretty much just competed in the Portuguese calendar. The great rival of the LA-Pecol-Bombarral the Milaneza-Maia, raced in the Vuelta (something that had not happened in the previous year).
After the 2004 season, the sponsor Pecol left the team, ending the designation LA-Pecol.
On 30 September 2011, it was announced that Brajkovič would be returning to for the 2012 season. He won the Tour of Slovenia in 2012. Brajkovic later rode the 2012 Tour de France where he ended up finishing 9th overall. After having a relatively quiet 2013 season, Brajkovic wore the Maillot Rojo after his team won the stage 1 team time trial in the Vuelta A Espana. He wore it for 1 day and then lost it to teammate Vincenzo Nibali. The 2014 season was statistically the worst year of Brajkovic's career. He failed to record a stage win for the first time in his career, which was attributed to many injuries and illnesses.
A total of 22 teams were invited to participate in the 1998 Vuelta a España. Seventeen of the competing squads were Trade Team I teams, four teams were Trade Team II teams, while the other team was Trade Team III. Each team sent a squad of nine riders, so the Vuelta began with a peloton of 198 cyclists, a total of 108 riders made it to the finish in Madrid.
The route of the 2017 Vuelta a Espana was revealed by Unipublic on 12 January 2017. Keeping with the tradition of the past few years, the race started off with a team time trial. However, the race started in France, just the third time in history that the Spanish Grand Tour began outside of its home country.
Among the 22 teams that participated in the 2013 Vuelta a España, 19 were UCI World Tour teams, and 3 were Professional Continental teams. The list below contains 198 cyclists entered in the 2013 Vuelta a España, which began on 22 August and finished on 15 September.
Juan Antonio Flecha, Chris Froome, Sergio Henao, Danny Pate, Richie Porte, Ian Stannard, Ben Swift, Rigoberto Uran and Xabier Zandio lined up to start the Vuelta a Espana. Froome was designated the team leader, while Swift was the squads sprinter. Sky finished fifth in the time trial on the first stage. Ben Swift finished in second place on stage 18 and third on the second stage. Chris Froome finished second on stage six. Richie Porte finished second on stage 20.
Caja Rural was invited to participate in the 2012 Vuelta a España, which departed from Pamplona where the team is based. The 2012 Vuelta saw Caja Rural rider Antonio Piedra, take Stage 15, a high mountain affair finishing atop the Lakes of Covadonga climb. Piedra dropped his breakaway companions on the first "Hors Category" climb of the Vuelta, and finished with 2 minutes and 2 seconds advantage over his nearest competitor. The team's enthusiasm for competition in their Vuelta début was highlighted by a heartbreaking episode in the 4th stage. Marcos García valiantly fought to the head of the peloton, sprinted to the finish line and threw kisses to the crowd as he crossed it triumphantly. However, owing to miscommunication with the team car, he was unaware that three escapees had crossed the line before him.