The red jersey is worn by the leader of the general classification. The overall leader, this is the rider who has taken the lowest accumulated time over the course of the race.

At the end of each stage, the race leader is presented with the red jersey and will wear it the following day.

The Vuelta leaders’ jersey has changed colours a number of times during its history. It was orange in 1935, its inaugural year, before switching to white.

Having been staged only intermittently from the late 1930s onwards, the Vuelta returned to the cycling calendar in 1955, and organisers adopted the yellow jersey worn in the Tour de France.

It changed again to a gold jersey in 1998, before the red jersey was formally adopted in 2010.

The 2024 Vuelta was won by Primoz Roglic – his fourth victory in the event.