Alberto Contador has announced he is to ride the Vuelta a España, just weeks after breaking his leg.
The Tinkoff-Saxo rider was the team's leader at the Tour de France before he suffered the injury in a crash on Stage 10 of the race.
Now the Spaniard is set to return to racing during the last Grand Tour of the season, and one in which he was victorious in 2012, the last time he competed.
The two-time Vuelta champion confirmed in a video message that he had returned to training some time ago.
“I've been riding my bike for last ten days, and yesterday was the first day I could climb a mountain pass without knee pain, and that excites me, motivates me and led me to take the decision that I will ride the Tour of Spain,” said Contador.
"I know it's a Vuelta a España that I'll have to take in a very different way than I had thought earlier in the season, or as I planned the Tour.
"I think it can be very good for me, thinking about the end of the season and either to start next year with guaranties, and perhaps in the last week I could be fighting for a stage win."
“Thanks to the work of the specialists who have treated me I could recover in record time. Am deeply grateful to them all,” said the five-time Grand Tour winner.
"Now I'll try to do my best in this last week until the start. See you all in Jerez."
The Vuelta begins with a team trial around Jerez on August 23.