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updated 10:20 a.m. ET Jan. 26, 2013

MADRID (Reuters) - Alberto Contador is not planning to ride the Giro d'Italia in May and will focus fully on the Tour de France starting at the end of June, the Spaniard was quoted as saying on Saturday.

"There will be no Giro for me," Contador, who won the race in 2008, was quoted as saying in Spanish media on the sidelines of the Tour de San Luis in Argentina.

"I was at the Giro in 2011 and I have very good memories of the race but this year I want to go at 100 percent at the Tour (de France) and after that I'll see if I go to the (Tour of Spain)," added the Saxo-Tinkoff rider.

"The Giro is a very special race for me but the Tour de France is more important this year."

Contador has won the Tour de France three times but was stripped of his 2010 title after testing positive for an illegal substance. He returned from a two-year doping ban in August and won the Tour of Spain.

(Reporting by Iain Rogers; Editing by Clare Fallon)