Spain's three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador has confirmed that he will defend his title in cycling's showpiece event next month despite ongoing doping allegations.
The rider will thus be seeking to complete the first Giro d'Italia-Tour de France double since the late Marco Pantani in 1998.
The 28-year-old won the Tour de France in 2007, 2009 and 2010, but his last success is still awaiting ratification from the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Contador tested positive for a trace amount of the banned substance clenbuterol during last year's Tour.
The Spanish Cycling Federation initially banned him but then reversed that decision, accepting his claim that he had unknowingly consumed drug-contaminated meat and was therefore not negligent.
That decision prompted an appeal to the CAS from the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA), which will be heard in August after the end of the Tour de France.