Sunday 27 August 2017 14:41, UK
Four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome will lead Team Sky in the 2017 Vuelta a Espana.
The Spanish Grand Tour starts on August 19 and presents plenty of unfinished business for the Briton, who has finished as runner-up on three occasions, including after winning the Tour in 2016.
Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault are the only two riders to have ever completed the Tour/Vuelta double in the same season.
No cyclist has won both, however, since the Spanish tour moved to later in the calendar, after the Tour de France, in 1995.
Froome said: "The Vuelta is a race I love racing. It's a vicious race but it's three weeks that I enjoy. I've come second three times now and I'd love to win the Vuelta.
"To win the Tour and the Vuelta in one year would be absolutely incredible. I've got that opportunity now and I'm certainly going to go for it."
In 2011 Froome finished just 13 seconds behind Juan Jose Cobo after spending much of the race working for Team Sky colleague and British compatriot Bradley Wiggins.
He also finished second to Alberto Contador in 2014 and to Nairo Quintana in 2016, following his third Tour de France success.
The Vuelta starts in the French city of Nimes on Saturday, finishing on September 10 in Madrid.
Team Sky's line-up is completed by Ian Stannard, Wout Poels, Christian Knees, David Lopez, Gianni Moscon, Mikel Nieve, Salvatore Puccio and Diego Rosa.
"It's a strong line-up, there's no doubt about it," Sir Dave Brailsford told Sky Sports News.
"We had to think quite long and hard about this selection and, if you like, the team is divided up into small, working groups.
"Ian Stannard and Christian Knees are big guys, they'll do a lot of the flat, rouleur-type work. They'll be the key lieutenants during the longer stages and in those flatter parts for Chris [Froome].
"Then there's what we call the mid-mountain guys and they'll be Salvatore [Puccio], Gianni [Moscon] and David Lopez.
"It's Gianni's, super talented, Italian rider's first Grand Tour so we're very excited to see how he gets on.
"And then we've got the climbers. [Who are] obviously Chris himself. Wout [Poels], who's come back from a knee injury. [He's] very fresh and he's really looking forward to this race. And the great lieutenant of Chris, the climber Mikel Nieve.
"That's how the team is compartmentalised.
"You put that together and we're ready for action in all terrain."
Nieve and Knees were also in the team which helped steer Froome to his latest Tour de France success last month.
