It consisted of 19 stages covering a total of 3,593 km, and was won by Éric Caritoux of the Skil–Sem cycling team.

[1] 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.

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, and also the smallest ever seen in a Grand Tour.

[2][3][4] Thirteen teams were invited by the race organizers to participate in the 1984 edition of the Vuelta a España, six of which were based outside of Spain.

[5] Each team sent a squad of ten riders, meaning that the race started with a peloton of 130 cyclists.

[6] The teams entering the race were:[5] Covering a total of 3,489 km (2,168 mi), it included three individual time trials, and thirteen stages with categorized climbs that awarded mountains classification points.