Mark Christian will make his Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta a Espana this weekend.

The 26-year-old from Douglas is among the 10-strong Aqua Blue team set to tackle the event, which starts on Saturday and continues until September 10.

The Aqua Blue team itself is also making its debut in a Grand Tour having secured a wildcard entry in March.

In doing so they will become the first Irish team to have competed in one of cycling’s three-week Tours.

Christian jetted out to the continent on Tuesday after spending a few days at home in the island.

This came after the 2010 Commonwealth Games track bronze medallist had competed in the Vuelta a Burgos, also held in Spain at the start of the month, finishing 45th on general classification.

It was hoped Christian would be joined in the peleton for the last Grand Tour of the season by fellow Manxie Peter Kennaugh, but he has not been included in Team Sky’s line-up for the race.

Kennaugh, who will move to the Bora Hansgrohe team for the 2018 campaign, was initially named in the Sky longlist for the event, but misses out along with fellow Brit Tao Geoghegan-Hart.

Ian Stannard, who has a home in Castletown, is in the Team Sky squad that will be aiming to help Tour de France yellow jersey winner Chris Froome become only the third person to win the TdF and Vuelta general classification titles in the same year.

The action gets underway in Nimes, Southern France on Saturday with a team time trial.

A 203.4km stage follows from Nimes to Gruissan in France the following day before the action continues into Andorra on Monday.

The tour reaches Spanish soil on Tuesday.

l Update in next week’s Manx Independent.