Ireland’s Dan Martin is expected to skip the Vuelta, which begins later this month, in favour of other late season races.
The UAE Team Emirates rider is now expected to join a very solid general classification line-up at the re-established Deutschland Tour.
In Martin’s absence from the Vuelta, his Italian team mate and former Vuelta winner Fabio Aru looks set to lead the team in Spain.
In Germany Deutschland Tour runs from August 29th to September 1st and is organised by ASO, which owns the Tour de France and many of the big races across pro cycling.
The German tour has had a troubled past with sponsors unwilling to back it as revelations about doping continued to emerge from the sport.
As that controversy worsened, some German broadcasters dropped the Tour de France and the inability of the Deutschland Tour to finance itself was effectively part of the same fall-out from doping.
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That meant the Deutschland Tour was not run between 2009 and 2017.
It returned last year when it was run over four stages and won by Matej Mohoric.
The race clashes with the Vuelta but it has still secured some very big names.
It is regarded by ASO as a major strategic asset in re-launching and rehabilitating pro cycling in German, which is a very significant commercial market for TV rights and cycling generally.
While Dan Martin is now expected to ride it, Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) will also be on the start line as well as Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo).
Julian Alaphilippe and Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) are also set to ride as is Michał Kwiatkowski (Team Ineos) and Tour treble stage winner Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal).
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