Despite the presence of many young riders eager to leave their mark in the line-up, this season’s Giro d’Italia was expected to be a huge clash between young Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and experienced Joaqium Rodriguez (Katusha) taking on one of his last chances to eventually claim a victory in a three-week event. While the 24-year old Colombian overcame early setbacks to convincingly win the Italian grand tour, a decade older Catalan crashed out of competition as a consequence of a massive pile-up at the bottom of the Montecassino climb before the real rivalry between GC contenders kicked-off in the earnest, but the duo is to face each other again at the Vuelta a Espana in August.

Even though Rodriguez’ presence in the Italian event, on paper, should add up to the truly exciting rivalry between general classification contenders, the Katusha captain didn’t appear to be even close to his top disposition in the opening stages of the Giro. As injuries sustained during the infamous crash combined with massive time loss forced the 34-year old Catalan to abandon the race, it has been revealed that Rodriguez entered the competition with broken ribs, painful residues of his highly unfortunate Ardennes classics campaign, what at least partially explained his disappointing performances.

Just as the 34-year old Catalan abandoned the race, speculations arose about his objectives for the rest of the 2014 season. Even though appearance at the Tour de France hasn’t been ruled out categorically, it has been emphasized that riding the Vuelta as a second grand tour was an initial idea.

As the 2014 edition of the Giro d’Italia came to its end, Katusha team have confirmed that Rodriguez would target the Spanish three-week event as one of his final chances to become the grand tour champion. The Russian squad, after assessing their fruitless efforts in Italy, also made it clear that they need to line up with some alternate options to avoid similar situations in the future.

"We were sad to have lost 'Purito' at the beginning of the race but it was important to move past that right away. We saw the team was still active for the rest of the Giro and it’s very hard to do that – come with one plan in mind and then have to completely refocus on another plan. For future races we realize we need to have a B plan in place and we will do that,” Katusha team manager Viatcheslav Ekimov said.

"His main goal for the remainder of the season is the overall classification in the Vuelta."

Meanwhile, Katusha will line-up at the Tour de France targeting the points green jersey with powerful sprinter Alexander Kristoff.

"We will go the Tour de France with a sprinter's train. The green jersey is Kristoff's goal," Ekimov told Eurosport. 

As Rodriguez will take his twentieth attempt to eventually win a grand tour race, it comes as no surprise that the 24-year old Giro d’Italia champion will be again his biggest rival. It has been confirmed that Quintana will return to Colombia to enjoy a well deserved rest period, and will line up at the Spanish grand tour in the second part of the season alongside Movistar Tour de France leader, Alejandro Valverde.

“Not this year. It has been very demanding since January when I won San Luis, after that I was very consistent, second at Tirreno-Adriatico, fifth at Catalunya and the Giro. Now I need a little bit of rest,” Quintana answered Biciciclismo, asked about his ambitions to ride the Tour de France again.

“It is a dream to win the Tour de France. We have a strong team and I hope that we can continue like this, getting better and stronger, to be able to fight for the Tour next year.”