ALEX ZUELLE won his first Tour of Spain yesterday and was followed home by fellow Swiss Laurent Dufaux and Tony Rominger.

Zuelle maintained his six minutes advantage over Dufaux on the final stage with Rominger a further two minutes back. The last leg ended with a traditional sprint finish, in which Belgian Tom Steels crossed the line first. Zuelle finished second behind Rominger in 1993 but had been dogged by bad luck in his attempts to win a major race.

Rominger's bid to win a fourth Vuelta had foundered after he dropped nearly eight minutes on the third stage. But he fought back to win two time trials, and both he and Dufaux moved up a place when Frenchman Laurent Jalabert dropped from second to 20th because of a stomach upset. Rominger also took the King of the Mountains title.

While the Swiss dominated the overall standings, the Italians achieved 11 stage wins out of 22, most of them in sprints.

But it was a disastrous race for the home riders. The Spaniards failed to win a single stage for the first time in the race's history. Their highest finisher was Fernando Escartin, 10th.

The race lost much of its following when Miguel Indurain retired just after the halfway mark.

The Spaniard had been a reluctant entrant and his Banesto sponsors have been criticised by the Spanish press for forcing the five times Tour de France winner to compete.