PARIS (Reuters) – The Vuelta a Espana seems set to show right into a Jumbo-Visma v Ineos-Grenadiers battle as Chris Froome was confirmed within the squad for his final race with the British outfit on Thursday.

The four-time Tour de France champion, who has been struggling to hit prime kind since coming back from a career-threatening crash final yr, will lead Ineos-Grenadiers alongside 2019 Giro d’Italia winner Richard Carapaz.

Froome will go away the workforce on the finish of the season to hitch Israel-Begin Up Nation.

Jumbo-Visma will go along with former Giro champion Tom Dumoulin and this yr’s Tour de France runner-up Primoz Roglic after the Slovenian misplaced the general lead on this planet’s best race on the final aggressive day.

Different challengers embrace France’s Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), who misplaced all hope of successful the Tour after sustaining a again damage throughout the opening stage, but additionally Spaniard Enric Mas (Movistar), who completed the Vuelta in second place in 2018.

The Vuelta begins from Irun on Tuesday.

The race will solely function 18 levels after organisers scraped the beginning from the Netherlands amid the COVID-19 disaster.

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Modifying by Christian Radnedge)