Image 1 of 3 Grand Tour bosses Christian Prudhomme of ASO and Victor Cordero of Unipublic (Image credit: AFP) Image 2 of 3 Jean-Etienne Amaury, President of the Amaury Sport Organisation, speaks during the official presentation of 2012 Tour de France route. (Image credit: AFP) Image 3 of 3 The 2014 Vuelta a Espana logo (Image credit: Lavuelta.com)

According to Spanish new sources, Tour de France organiser, Amuary Sports Organisation (ASO), has completed a take over of Unipublic, the Spanish company that organises the Vuelta a Espana.

When the deal was first rumoured in February of 2008, then UCI president Pat McQuaid told Cyclingnews that he believed ASO had plans to create a "rival international federation." As well as the Tour, ASO controls, among others, the Paris-Nice and Paris-Roubaix, Fleche-Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne, as well as the Dakar Rally and owns the Le Parisien and L'Equipe newspapers.

There has been no formal announcement by ASO on their acquisition of the shares.

In February of this year, rumours began to circulate that ASO was considering buying the Giro d'Italia from RCS Sport, the owners of the Giro, to take complete control of all three grand tours although both parties have denied this is a possibility.