Among the other contenders were his rivals of the previous year, Jesús Montoya (supported by his Amaya Seguros team that included such names as Melcior Mauri, Laudelino Cubino and Oliverio Rincón), and Pedro Delgado.

A Swiss youngster, Alex Zülle, Breukink's ONCE teammate, who had been the revelation of the previous year's Tour de France, surprised by winning the prologue with a commanding lead of over half a minute over the rest of the contenders.

It was expected that the Swiss youngster, who had so far not shown climbing abilities, would lose the lead on the stage 5 mountain time trial to the Puerto de Navacerrada.

By the end of the stage, Rominger had taken a famous solo win atop the Alto del Naranco and had taken another minute out of Zülle and his chasing ONCE team.

The Vuelta's final stage was a 44 km individual time trial where Zülle was determined to take back Rominger's general classification lead of little over a minute.