Australian rider Adam Hansen is set to line up at his sixteenth consecutive Grand Tour having been announced as part of the Lotto-Soudal team to start the Vuelta a España.

If he finishes the race, he will extend his own record for completing consecutive Grand Tours. When he finished last year’s Vuelta which was his thirteenth Grand Tour in a row, Hansen broke Bernardo Ruiz’s 57-year-old record for consecutive Grand tours completed. Since then, he has completed the Giro d’Italia in 68th place overall and the Tour de France in 100th position.

Hansen’s run goes all the way back to the 2011 Vuelta and since then, he has taken stage wins in both the Giro in 2013 and the Vuelta in 2014.

His record run is all the more remarkable considering that he has completed a number of races despite suffering painful injuries such as a fractured sternum at the 2012 Giro and a painful hip from a crash at the Vuelta that same year.

The 71st edition of the race starts on the 20th of August with a team time-trial from Balneario Laias to Parque Náutico de Castrelo de Miño.

Also named on the Lotto-Soudal team are Sander Armée, Bart De Clercq, Thomas De Gendt, Gert Dockx, Maxime Monfort, Tosh Van der Sande, Louis Vervaeke and Jelle Wallays.

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