Having targeted the Tour de France in 2013, Joaquim Rodriguez will go back to his usual schedule and make the Giro d'Italia the centrepiece of his season. With the courses for both the French and Italian grand tours now unveiled, the Katusha leader is most attracted by the hilly route for the latter race.

In previous years, Joaquim Rodriguez have usually followed a race schedule where the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana have been his grand tour targets but this year he chose to deviate from the pattern. As the Tour de France offered a very mountainous course, the Spaniard saw a unique opportunity to get onto the only grand tour podium that had so far eluded him and he was even prepared to leave Katusha to make sure that he was on the start line in Corsica in June.

Having accomplished his mission by finishing 3rd in the French race, Rodriguez has now defined a new target. Having already finished 2nd in the Giro d'Italia, the 34-year-old now wants to win a grand tour.

With this objective in mind, Rodriguez has studied the courses for the Tour and Giro and have reached the conclusion that the one in Italy suits him best. Hence, the Katusha leader will return to the Giro in 2014 and try to improve on his 2nd place from the 2012 edition of the race.

"Next year my goal is the Giro, it's a tough race," he told Sport3 on Catalan television. "I did it last year and was second, only 16 seconds behind Hesjedal, and it is a race that I have much passion for. The Italian people like me and I want to ride it."

Both courses have been described as suited to climbers like Rodriguez but while the Tour will only have 6 uphill finishes, the Giro will end with a climb on 9 occasions. At the same time, there is less flat time trialing in the Giro which also has fewer entirely flat stages.

"The Italian terrain is hard and that's what pleases me," he said. "It's hard to find any flat stage, there's always some kind of challenge. And these stages suit me better. For me, the worst are those 200km flat transitional stages where everything can happen and you can lose a grand tour."

Rodriguez ended his season with mixed emotions. He narrowly missed out on a win in the world championships road race but got his revenge one week later when he defended his win in Il Lombardia. The Spaniard is now enjoying a well-earned rest and plans to resume racing in January like he did last year.

"Now I'm on vacation," he said. "I have a break in October and November. In December we start to train and the team will have its first camp here in Catalonia. In January, I will start my season in Argentina to find warmth."

"The break allows me to do what I miss all season: see my family, visit friends, do other sports, play football. I also like the world of motorcycles and cars."

For the second year in a row, Rodriguez won the individual WorldTour ranking which he also topped in 2010. At the end of the season, he made it clear that the season-long competition was an important objective and that he even considered travelling to China for the Tour of Beijing, should he fail to take the lead in Lombardia. That ended up not being necessary as his win in the Italian classic was enough to unseat previous leader Chris Froome.

"To be number one is a reward for my regularity, like the ATP rankings in tennis," he said. "It is an honour. It also requires a clear strategy. There are races that I know I can't win but where I try to score points."

Rodriguez also regretted the missed opportunity at the worlds where he was reeled in by eventual winner Rui Costa with 1km to go. "It will be difficult to repeat," he said. "I do not get many chances like that."

Rodriguez has lived in Andorra for several years and likes the Pyrenean country.

"It's very quiet for me and my family because it's becoming increasingly to train on these roads [in his native Catalonia]. And I don't have the mountains here. It is a heaven. People say that I only live there because it is a tax haven, but no, I have had my house there since 2007 and it has been my residence since 2007."

In 2014, Rodriguez will once again be the leader of the Katusha team which has seen very few changes to its roster during the transfer season.