Even though he won both the KOM and the best young rider competitions at this year’s Tour de France and finished runner-up while providing at least a semblance of a threat to Chris Froome’s overall win, Nairo Quintana (Movistar) has indicated that he might forgo the Tour next year to have a crack at the Giro instead.

At the Giro presentation in Milan yesterday, the diminutive Colombian gave hints that his race itinerary might be different in 2014.

“I would have liked to have been at the Giro already this year, but Unzué [team manager at Movistar] preferred to send me to the Tour,” Quintana stated according to Gazzetta dello Sport. “The Giro has always fascinated me and I’ve always favoured it over the Tour because there are more mountains, which makes the race more suited to me.”

Quintana did emphasize, though, that he would await the announcement of the Tour route on October 23 before making a final decision regarding his plans for the 2014 season.

“I hope that my desire can become reality, although before making a definitive decision, we’ll have to wait and see the courses of the Tour and the Vuelta,” Quintana said.

Even though next year’s Giro route sees none of the excessively steep ascents and descents of recent years, it remains basically a climbers’ Grand Tour, and Quintana, predictably, was wholehearted in his support for the course. With five summit finishes in the high mountains – at Oropa, Montecampione, Val Martello, Rifugio Panarotta and the infamous Monte Zoncolan – Quintana will have a cluster of opportunities to display his climbing talents.

Quintana also, rather peevishly, commented on the length of the individual time trial even though 46 km pale in comparison to the accumulated km of climbing in next year’s Giro.

“The third week, even if I don’t know any Italian mountains, seems really hard to me. The only real stage that isn’t good for me is the [Barolo] time trial, because it’s very long [46km].”

Quintana got a taste of steep ascents Italian style in the Il Lombardia on Sunday as the peloton climbed the brutal ascent called Muro di Sormano. Quintana was the first rider to crest the summit and thus won the Vincenzo Torriani prize named after the late Giro d’Italia organiser who introduced the Muro on the parcours of the Giro di Lombardia in 1961.

Even though Quintana was the first rider to crest the Muro on Sunday, he wasn’t the fastest. Sky’s Dario Cataldo took that honour, negotiating the Muro (15 % average gradient with a 27 maximum gradient) in 9’32” which is 12 seconds slower than Qiuntana’s compatriot and Cataldo’s team mate Sergio Henao who holds the record with 9’20”.