It consisted of 17 stages covering a total of 3,061 km, and was won by Eddy Merckx of the Molteni cycling team.

As Merckx had already won several editions of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia with his win in the Vuelta, he became the third cyclist after Jacques Anquetil and Felice Gimondi to win all three grand tours in his career.

With Merckx finishing first, Ocaña second and Thévenet third the podium of the 1973 Vuelta contained one previous winner and two future winners of the Tour de France making it one of the best podiums in the history of the race, according to the official race website.

[9] Each team sent a squad of ten riders, which meant that the race started with a peloton of 80 cyclists.

[10] In this ranking, points were won by reaching the summit of a climb ahead of other cyclists.