Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas have been named to lead their Ineos Grenadiers squad at a Tour de France-calibre field at Tirreno-Adriatico from September 7-14 in Italy. The eight-day race will also feature Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo), Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix).
Four-time Tour de France winner Froome and 2018 Tour champion Thomas were vying for leadership roles for this year's Tour de France when their Ineos team – now called Ineos Grenadiers – announced that Egan Bernal would be the sole leader at the French Grand Tour.
Froome and Thomas were not part of the prestigious roster, which is instead supporting Bernal with Andrey Amador, Richard Carapaz, Jonathan Castroviejo, Michal Kwiatkowski, Luke Rowe, Pavel Sivakov and Dylan van Baarle.
The team also revealed, at that time, that Thomas would instead lead the team at the Giro d'Italia, held from October 3-25, and that Froome would lead the team at the Vuelta a España, held from October 20-November 8.
At Tirreno-Adriatico, Ineos Grenadiers will have one of the strongest rosters on a provisional start list that also includes Rohan Dennis, Eddie Dunbar, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Filippo Ganna and Salvatore Puccio.
Last year's winner, Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), will not be on the start line in Italy as he competes for the overall victory at the Tour de France.
There are other strong teams registered to compete in the eight-day race, with Nibali leading Trek-Segafredo as part of his all-Italian race schedule that leads into the Giro d'Italia.
Michael Woods, who suffered a fractured femur in March, will lead EF Pro Cycling as he also takes aim at the Giro.
Simon Yates, meanwhile, will lead Mitchelton-Scott at Tirreno-Adriatico while his twin brother, Adam, is currently wearing the yellow jersey after stage 5 of the Tour de France.
With several flat stages and no major summit finishes, the race has also attracted top sprint talent such as Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates), Michael Matthews (Sunweb), Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Alvaro Hodeg (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Mike Teunissen (Jumbo-Visma), Mark Cavendish (Bahrain McLaren), and up-and-comer Alex Aranburu (Astana).
This year's race was postponed from its traditional March spot on the calendar to September as part of the revised-season calendar after the spring races were halted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Tirreno-Adriatico was then rescheduled for September 7-14, during the second week of the Tour de France, and will consist of eight stages instead of the usual seven.
