Carapaz and Froome set for Vuelta

For Froome, the Vuelta represents his first Grand Tour since the 2018 Tour de France - and his first since the terrible crash during last year’s Criterium du Dauphine.

The 35 year old is hopeful of performing well in Spain and feels he is improving all the time. He confirmed that he will be supporting Carapaz on the daunting road to Madrid. Andrey Amador, Michal Golas, Brandon Rivera, Ivan Sosa, Dylan van Baarle and Cameron Wurf round out the lineup.

“We’ve got a great team here to support Richard as much as possible,” said Froome. “I’m going to take it one day at a time, and hopefully finish the Vuelta on a high note. For me personally, I am going to take these first few days to see where I am in the bunch.

“I think it’s quite hard to say where I am at the moment given that I haven’t done many stage races recently. Signs in training have gotten better and better, and I am feeling more like myself again, which is fantastic. It’s hard to quantify that when I haven’t been able to race against rivals. After the first few stages, I will be able to have a more clear plan for the rest of the race, and know what kind of job I can fulfil at that point.

“I’ve got to keep in mind that I haven’t raced a Grand Tour in two years now, so I am looking at taking it one day at a time. The first three stages are very hard, and we’ll see pretty fast how I am feeling. I’ll know pretty quickly, as the first few days of racing are pretty full-on.”