County Tyrone’s Darren Rafferty has been named in the EF Education–EasyPost team for this year’s Vuelta a Espana, which begins in Lisbon on Saturday.
For his first Grand Tour, the 21-year-old will be supporting team leader Richard Carapaz as the Ecuadorian bids to improve on his King of the Mountains victory at the Tour de France last month.
The Dungannon man makes the step up after a strong performance in last week’s Vuelta a Burgos, where he finished 16th overall, and his triumph at the National Cycling Championships in June.