Triple winner Alberto Contador will wear bib No.1 in his farewell Vuelta a Espana later this month as the Spaniard prepares to bring his career to an end.
Contador, who announced on Monday this year's Vuelta would be his last professional race, will be bidding for a fourth title after his triumphs in 2008, 2012 and 2014.
The No.1 bib is usually reserved for the defending champion, but organisers have broken with tradition and handed it to the Trek-Segafredo rider.
"That Alberto chooses Spain and La Vuelta to call it a career is a great honour for the whole organisation," Javier Guillen, general director of the Vuelta, said in a statement.
Contador is one of only six riders to have won all three Grand Tours, although two of his nine titles (the 2010 Tour de France and 2011 Giro d'Italia) were expunged from the record books because of a doping ban.
This year's three-week race features a strong line-up including Tour de France champion Chris Froome and multiple Grand Tour winner Vincenzo Nibali.
It begins in the French city of Nimes on August 19.
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