Line-up unveiled for La Vuelta España

UAE Team Emirates will take on the third and final Grand Tour of the season with the Vuelta España departing from the Portuguese city of Lisbon on August 17th before concluding three weeks later in Madrid on September 8.

Local Portuguese favourite Joao Almeida comes into the race after a stunning debut Tour de France which saw him take 4th place overall and played a key role in guiding Pogačar to overall victory. He will be joined in the GC ambitions by Adam Yates who also shone in the Tour de France coming home with 6th place overall.

Yates: “Obviously the Tour went perfectly to plan, personally and as a team I think we rode it really well and got the result we wanted. I’ve taken a bit of rest since then and built up for the Vuelta which was one of the big goals for the latter part of the year.
Myself and Joao had a good partnership going at Suisse and I think if we’re both in top shape or either one of us is in contention we’ll be ready to make the best of it. The team we have here is quality and I think and hope we’ll be fighting for big results over the next weeks.”

The pair who achieved great success together at the Tour de Suisse in June will hope to replicate that on Spanish soil.

Almeida : “To begin a Grand Tour in Portugal is a dream.
I am super happy to start at Lisbon and pass my hometown. Having the support from home crowds and my family and friends will be special and maybe a once in a lifetime opportunity.

The Tour de France was a big step in my career I think and I’m really proud of what we achieved there. Now at the Vuelta I’m stepping into a leaders role alongside Adam and given the good understanding between us and all the teammates I think it’s going to be a super race for us. I’m really excited to get going.”

Elsewhere young prospect Isaac Del Toro makes his awaited Grand Tour debut alongside a team packed with experience.

The squad will be overseen by Sports Manager Matxin Fernandez (Spa) alongside Sports Directors Marco Marcato (Ita), Tomas Gil (Ven) and Manuele Mori (Ita).

Joao Almeida (Por)

Filippo Baroncini (Ita)

Isaac Del Toro (Mex)

Brandon McNulty (USA)

Pavel Sivakov (Fra)

Marc Soler (Spa)

Jay Vine (Aus)

Adam Yates (GB)

Matxin Fernandez (Sports Manager) : “The Vuelta España is a very important race for us. We have a top-class team with the likes of Joao Almeida who will be racing on home soil at the start in Portugal alongside co-leader Adam Yates. We all saw the partnership they had at the Tour de Suisse and the work they did for the team at the Tour de France so we are confident they can do a great race.

We also have the likes of Brandon McNulty who is a Grand Tour stage winner, Isaac Del Toro and Filippo Baroncini who both make their debut at a Grand Tour.

Marc Soler is one of the most combative riders in the World Tour. Sivakov comes into the race on great form as we saw last weekend in San Sebastian. Also Jay Vine has bravely fought back from a serious injury to complete the selection and is in good form also as he showed in Burgos. All round it’s an exciting team with aspirations of achieving big things.”