The Dutch city of Utrecht is set to host the start of the 2020 Vuelta a Espana with the opening three stages taking place in the Netherlands seeing the city become a host of all three Grand Tours.
The race will begin with a team time trial starting and finishing in Utrecht and Stage 2 departs from 's-Hertogenbosch before heading back to Utrecht. The third and final day in the Netherlands sees the peloton race in a loop around the Noord-Brabant with the stage starting and finishing in Breda.
This will be the fourth occasion the Vuelta has started outside of Spain with previous 'Salida Officials' in Lisboa (1987), Assen (2009) and Nimes (2017) and the second time the race has begun in the Netherlands following Assen a decade ago.
A statement read that 'Vuelta Director, Javier Guillén, is looking forward to the "Salida Oficial" in the Netherlands' and that 'Guillén has every confidence in the successful organisation of the event in these cities and provinces' considering the area's previous history of hosting Grand Tour stages.
Utrecht has hosted stages from both the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia in the past.
In 2015, the city hosted the Tour 'Grand Depart' with Australian Rohan Dennis riding the fastest individual time trial in Tour history to take the opening yellow jersey.
Before that in 2010, the Giro finished its second stage in Utrecht with Garmin-Transitions rider Tyler Farrar winning a bunch sprint.
Details of next year's course are set to be revealed on 19th January with the race set to start with either a team or individual time trial in the Costa Blanca city of Alicante. After that, the race is rumoured to include eight summit finishes of which many will be new to the race.
It is also rumoured that following a successful hosting of the Tour de France and next year's World Championships, Yorkshire is set to host the start of the 2022 Vuelta bringing the Spanish race to the UK for the first time.