Chris Froome set to race Vuelta a Espana

Team Sky’s Sir Dave Brailsford says Chris Froome will race next month’s Vuelta a Espana if he gets through the Olympic Games unscathed.

Froome is hoping to follow up his Tour de France victory by winning medals in both the Olympic road race on August 6 and Olympic time trial on August 10.

But he is also keen to take part in the year’s final Grand Tour and attempt to become only the third rider in history to win the Tour and Vuelta in the same season.

Brailsford told said: “That’s the plan at the minute. The season-long plan was Tour, on to the Olympics and on after that to the Vuelta, and that’s still the outline at the minute.As we go through the next phase with the Olympics, we will assess it as we go along. All being well, that’s what we will be doing.”

The Vuelta takes place from August 20 to September 11 on a mountainous route containing 10 summit finishes.

Brailsford revealed Mikel Landa is also pencilled in for Team Sky’s line-up but would not be drawn on whether the Spaniard would support Froome or be a joint-leader.

He added: “The plan is for Mikel to do it and we will assess where he is at. I think he needs another race before the Vuelta, so we will see where we are at.It’s his home race and a lot of the race is around his home town and up in the north of Spain, and we have big ambitions for him as well.”