Vuelta a Espana organizers Unipublic have announced the four wildcards for their grand tour and they will offer MTN-Qhubeka the chance to make their debut in a three-week race. The South African team will be joined on th start line by the 18 ProTeams, Caja Rural, Cofidis, and IAM.

Earlier this year MTN-Qhubeka were left disappointed when Giro d'Italia organizers RCS Sport decided to overlook them when they handed out their wildcards for the Italian grand tour. It was much more expected for them to miss out on a Tour de France invitation but now the South African team will make their grand tour debut in 2014 after all.

Today Vuelta a Espana organizers Unipublic announced the four wildcards for their race and the South African team made the cut to become the first-ever African squad in a three-week race. The team is likely to line up at the start in Jerez with a roster featuring sprint star Gerald Ciolek, GC contenders Sergio Pardilla and Linus Gerdemann and some of their most exciting African talents.

It was less of a surprise that the Spanish Caja Rural team again made the cut. The squad is the only Spanish professional contentinental team, and a non-invitation would virtually have been a knock-out blow for the Spanish cycling scene. The team has a powerful line-up that includes Luis-Leon Sanchez and David Arroyo, sprinter Francesco Lasca, perennial attackers Amets Txurruka and Angel Madrazo, and Tour de l'Avenir winner Ruben Fernandez.

It was also no surprise that Cofidis earned an invitation. The French team has a long history in the Vuelta and Cofidis is an important sponsor of the race as well. The team has dominated the mountains classification with David Moncoutie in recent years and even though he is no longer active, they can boast a powerful line up of climbers that include Daniel Navarro, Jerome Coppel, Rein Taaramae, Yoann Bagot, Luis Angel Mate, and Christophe Le Mevel.

Finally, IAM got an invitation to their second grand tour of the season. The team had been disappointed to miss out on Giro selection but earned the expected wildcard for the Tour. It remains to be see what kind of shape their key riders are in after the Tour but with riders like Mathias Frank, Thomas Löfkvist, Sylvain Chavanel, Heinrich Haussler, Johann Tschopp and young talents Sebastien Reichenbach and Jonathan Fumeaux, the can boast a powerful line-up able to make an impact in all terrains.

The Vuelta starts on August 23 with a team time trial in Jerez.