Monday 26 June 2017 14:37, UK
Mark Cavendish will get the chance to add to his 30 Tour de France stage victories after being confirmed in Team Dimension Data's squad.
Cavendish missed a large chunk of the 2017 season so far with glandular fever, but returned at the Tour of Slovenia earlier this month and finished second in one stage.
He failed to finish the British National Road Race Championship in the Isle of Man on Sunday but his South African team confirmed Cavendish in their nine-rider squad on Monday.
Cavendish said: "If I am being totally honest, had this not been the Tour de France we may have collectively taken a different approach with regards to my inclusion.
"But I feel that I owe it to myself, the team, our sponsors and most importantly to the Tour itself given its history and everything that it stands for - as well as the emotional attachment I have for it - to give it my best and to put everything I have into trying to help the team."
Steve Cummings, who won the British title, is also included along with a third Briton in Scott Thwaites and all will be on the start line for Saturday's opening time-trial in Dusseldorf.
Cummings' season has also been badly hit by injury but he will look to add to the breakaway stage victory he secured at the Tour last summer.
Cavendish won four stages during last year's race to close within four of all-time leader Eddy Merckx, who won 34 stages and also took the yellow jersey on five occasions during a glittering career.
There could be as many as nine chances for sprint finishes during the three-week race.
Dimension Data's line-up is completed by Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Jaco Venter, Serge Pauwels, Bernhard Eisel and Mark Renshaw.
