Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas have been selected to lead the Ineos Grenadiers, a group of riders that will rival the Tour de France at the Tirreno Adriatico in Italy from September 7-14. Also competing in the eight-day race will be Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo), Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin Phoenix).

Four-time Tour de France winner Froome and 2018 Tour champion Thomas were vying for the leader's spot in this year's Tour de France, but their Ineos team (now Ineos Grenadiers) has announced that Egan Bernal is the French announced that he would be the sole leader in the Grand Tour.

Froom and Thomas will not be included in this prestigious roster, and will instead join Andrei Amador, Richard Calapaz, Jonathan Castroviejo, Michal Kwiatkowski, Luke Rowe, Pavel Sivakov, and Dylan van Baarle in Support.

The team also announced that Thomas will lead the team in the Giro d'Italia, October 3-25, and Froome in the Vuelta a España, October 20-November 8.

In Tirreno-Adriatico, Ineos Grenadiers will be one of the strongest members of a provisional start list that includes Rohan Dennis, Eddie Dunbar, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Filippo Ganna, and Salvatore Puccio.

Last year's champion Primoš Roglic (Jumbo Visma) will not be on the Italian start line as he will be competing for the overall Tour de France title.

Nibali leads Trek-Segafredo as part of the all-Italian race schedule leading up to the Giro d'Italia.

Michael Woods, who broke his femur in March, will lead EF Pro Cycling to the Giro.

Meanwhile, Simon Yates leads Mitchelton-Scott in the Tirreno-Adriatico, while his twin brother Adam is currently wearing the yellow jersey after stage 5 of the Tour de France. [Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates), Michael Matthews (Sunweb), Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Alvaro Hodeg (Detunink-Quick Step), Mike Tunissen (Jumbo-Visma), Mark Cavendish (Bahrain McLaren), and up-and-coming Alex Aramburu (Astana).

The race was postponed this year from March to September as part of a revised season calendar after the spring race was cancelled due to a coronavirus outbreak.

The Tirreno-Adriatico takes place from September 7-14, the second week of the Tour de France, and consists of eight stages instead of the usual seven.