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The World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) has welcomed the ruling by a Spanish court that it will be able to examine the "crucial evidence" of around 200 blood bags representing a major doping scandal.
Tuesday's announcement from the Provincial Court of Madrid came a decade on from Operation Puerto revealing a doping network involving several leading cyclists.
Blood bags seized from the offices of sports doctor Eufemiano Fuentes were ordered to be destroyed in 2013 by Judge Julia Patricia Santamaria - prompting appeals from numerous parties.
However, the bags must now be handed over to WADA, the Royal Spanish Cycling Federation, International Cycling Union and Italian National Olympic Committee.
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WADA said in a statement: "The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is pleased with the decision taken by the Madrid Court of Appeal to provide access to stored Operation Puerto blood and plasma bags of athletes from cycling and other sports."
David Howman, WADA director general, stated: "WADA acknowledges the Madrid Court of Appeal for having reached the decision to provide anti-doping authorities with this crucial evidence,
"We are dismayed that it took so long to receive the decision but we will now partner with the other parties that have been granted access [to the blood bags], to determine our legal options vis-a-vis analysing the blood and plasma bags."
Both Fuentes - who says he also worked with athletes from sports other than cycling - and Jose Ignacio Labarta, a former cycling team official, have been acquitted of crimes against public health, for which they previously received suspended sentences.
"The conduct of Eufemiano Fuentes and Jose Ignacio Labarta Barrera does not fit the crime for which they were charged and convicted in the first instance," the court said on Tuesday.
Names of any athletes who may be implicated in the scandal as a result of the ruling have not yet been released.