Juan Ayuso, the UAE Emirates Team rider currently competing in the Tour de France, will lead the Spanish expedition to Paris 2024. Oier Lazkano (Movistar) and Alex Aranburu (Movistar) will join the Valencian, one of the most promising riders on the international scene.

Spanish selector Pascual Montparler has chosen a rider who, despite his 23 years, is very complete and experienced like Ayuso, as well as two fast riders with a knack for breakaways who could cause a stir. Spain could send three riders after finishing sixth in the national ranking last season. Juan Ayuso is the only one of the three who will be taking part in both the time trial and the road race.

The road race will cover 233 kilometres with over 2,800 metres of climbing. There are no long climbs, but it will be demanding and it will not be easy for a large group to finish together. All the signs are that the race will break up. 

And that is where Ayuso has a great chance. He is currently in the middle of the Tour de France, which finishes on 21 July, just five days before the start of the Games. Ayuso is fifth in the general classification of the Grand Boucle and, in addition to being a helper to his leader Tadej Pogacar, he will be one of the candidates for a podium finish.

The Spaniard has had a promising season. He won the Tour of the Basque Country and placed well in some of the year's biggest races, including the Critérium du Dauphiné and the Tour de Romandie. Ayuso will also take part in the time trial on 27 July. The UAE rider has already won the time trial at Tirreno-Adriatico and finished fifteenth in last Friday's time trial at the Tour de France, a stage won by Remco Evenepoel. He is currently considered the most complete Spanish rider. He has a strong personality that makes him a winner. His two teammates will be the last two national champions, Oier Lazkano in 2023 and Alex Aranburu in 2024.

Lazkano, who was voted the most combative rider on the Tour de France stage up the Galibier, where Ayuso finished third, has shone in the spring classics this year, finishing third in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and making his mark in the traditionally Belgian and Dutch-dominated Tour of Flanders and other major classics. The Movistar rider was also prominent in last Sunday's Tour stage, which featured 32 kilometres of gravel.

Aranburu, on the other hand, took the Spanish national championship title from Lazkano before the start of the Tour. The Spaniard has been in the sprints in all of the Tour's sprint stages and has finished in the top ten on three occasions. Aranburu may not have the top speed of the pure sprinters, but he does have the element of surprise in a different finish, with climbs and after a day of 233 kilometres.

On 27 July, the Esplanade des Invalides will be the starting point for the 32.4-kilometre individual time trial at the Paris Olympic Games. The road race, scheduled for Saturday 3 August, will cover 273 km. It will start with a 225km section through the western part of the Paris region. Ten climbs will be tackled. The race then returns to Paris for three laps of the decisive final city circuit, with each lap including the climb of Montmartre, a 1km climb with an average gradient of 6.5%.