Nairo Quintana (Movistar) has ended months of speculations regarding his 2014 race itinerary by confirming that he will make no return to the Tour de France in 2014, opting instead to ride the far more mountainous Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España.

During his first ever Tour participation last year, the 23-year-oldColombian finished as runner-up to Sky’s all-conquering Chris Froome, while winning the mountains classification, the white jersey and the final mountain stage to Semnoz.

“I’m preparing the season for the big objective, which is the Giro d’Italia,” Quintana told Colombian newspaper El Tiempo according to Cyclingnew.com.

“With my team, we’ve decided to ride it, before going to the Vuelta a España.”

In the Tour Quintana at times appeared to constitute the sole threat to Chris Froome’s dominance.

While Quintana is scheduled to cause havoc in the mountains in the Giro and the Vuelta this season, Spaniard Alejandro Valverde will bear the team’s hopes of Tour de France success on his shoulders.

“Valverde will be the team and the Tour, and for now, I’ll focus on the Giro and Vuelta,” Quintana said. “We’ll leave the Tour for other years.”

Quintana begins his 2014 season at the Tour de San Luis, which gets underway on Monday. The race features three mountaintop finishes, at Mirador del Potrero, the Alto del Amago and Mirador del Sol, but Quintana said his priority in Argentina will be preparing for the season to come.

In his explanations, Quintana conveniently steered clear of addressing the presence of cobblestones and a 50km individual time trial on the penultimate stage which would most likely see him in unfamiliar territory and lose a significant amount of time to Froome et al.