Vuelta a Espana was not organized for several years after the first two editions in 1935 and 1936. The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) made it impossible.
Thus the 3rd edition of the youngest grand tour was held between 12 June and 6 July in 1941. Middle in the Second World War (quick reminder: Operation Barbarossa, the German attack against the Soviet Union started on 22 June 1941), the race was competed only by Spanish and Swiss riders. More precisely: from the 32 participants 28 cyclists were from Spain and only 4 from Switzerland. (Later editions during World War Two have only slightly better: in 1942, there were also some Belgian, Italian and French riders in the peloton.)
No wonder, that all the 21 stages were won by Spanish cyclists.
However, even Spanish riders were far from their best form. For example Julián Berrendero the winner of this edition just came back from a Francoist concentration camp after being held there for 18 months.
Nevertheless, from the 21 stages, Delio Rodriguez won 12. This is proved to be a record for eternity. A few years later, in 1945, Rodriguez also won the general classification. He participated only five editions (between 1941 and 1947) but still managed to win a total of 39 stages.
