After riding as a team leader for most of his career, Igor Anton prepares himself for a new challenge. Having been a late addition to the Movistar roster, the Basque climber is ready to work in support of Nairo Quintana in the Giro d'Italia where he has achieved his greatest personal win.

After having struggled to find a new team for most of the off-season, Igor Anton can finally continue his preparation of 2014 with peace in mind. Having signed a deal with Movistar in December, Anton managed to save his career at the last minute and even managed to stay in the WorldTour.

While he was one of the Euskaltel's leaders, Anton has already admitted that he will have to take a step back in 2014. While he will get his own chances in select races, he has mostly been signed as a luxury domestique for Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde.

It has already been confirmed that Valverde will do the Tour de France while it appears to be almost guaranteed that Quintana will lead the team in the Giro d'Italia. Anton has made it clear that he prefers the Italian grand tour over the French one, having won the big mountain stage to Monte Zoncolan in 2011, and it seems that he will get his chance to return to his happy Italian hunting ground next year.

Having had the chance to discuss his race schedule with his new management, Anton has made the Giro his main target for the first part of the season. The participation will be his third after making his debut in his first professional season in 2005 and returning 6 years later.

"In my first year as a professional rider, I think it was a tough race; it always is," he told Biciclismo. "It is a race for which I have a lot of respect. You don't find the surroundings of the Giro anywhere else, not even in the Tour. And what about the 2011 Giro when I returned and won a stage like the one to the Zoncolan which is my best win so far? The value doubles because of the riders I beat."

Anton knows that he will have a different role than he had with Euskaltel where he was used to leading jis team in the grand tours.

"I will be happy to return with a new role, to support Nairo who is a great rider - only if his participation is confirmed, of course," he said. "I have already accepted he role. I have no problem with that. The main thing is to live up to the expectations. I have to adapt and learn how to work, especially in the mountains."

The Giro will be his main target but there will be room to excel in the first months of the year. Anton has received a schedule that will see him do some of the major Spanish races.

"I'm the last one to have signed and everything has happened so quickly," he said. "The program is certainly focused on the Giro d'Italia in May. I'll start in Mallorca before the presentation and will then have a training camp and do the Tour du Haut Var. Then we have the Volta a Catalunya, the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and the Ardennes Classics although there may be changes. The goal is to be good from April to May and I hope to make a good impression.""

Those races could allow Anton to excel on his own.

"There are always opportunities that turn up and should be taken," he said. "I will work for some very strong leaders but the door is open for personal success as it was the case this year when 12 different riders have taken wins."

After 9 years with Euskaltel, Anton is now officially a Movistar rider and the first photos of him wearing his new jersey have been made issued. Anton admits that it has been strange to in a different environment.

"I signed my contract on a Tuesday and I joined the team on a Wednesday," he said. "From day to day, I had to pack my things. To see myself on the first photo in another colour was very weird but I feel well."

In 2013 Anton failed to win a single race and his most recent win dates back to 2011 when he won a Vuelta stage that finished in the Basque Country.