September 17, 2002 – The 57th Vuelta a España so far has been dominated by riders from Spain and Italy. Excluding the team time trial, which was won by Spanish team ONCE, all nine stages have been won by riders with either a Spanish or an Italian passport. Roberto Heras, Pablo Lastras and Aitor González (twice) gave Spanish fans a reason to celebrate and Danilo Di Luca, Mario Cipollini (three wins) and Guido Trentin have given Italy their best record so far in the Vuelta since 1955. In that year, the Italian riders won 8 out of 14 stages, or 57.14%. In this year's edition they have won 55.56%. In 1996, however, Italy's riders claimed 11 wins from 22 stages, their highest number of victories in one single Vuelta. Remarkably, Spain did not win a single stage that year, the only time in history they failed to do so.

It is also worth mentioning though that in 1941 all the stages in the Vuelta were won by home grown riders. Now the Spanish and Italian cyclists together have a 100% record. The last time riders from both countries dominated the Tour of Spain to such an extend was back in 1947.