Nairo Quintana has responded to rumours that he will be the Movistar leader in the Giro d'Italia while his  teammate Alejandro Valverde will spearhead the team in the Tour de France. Refusing to confirm the reports, the Tour de France king of the mountains says that nothing has been decided yet.

On Saturday, Biciciclismo reported that Movistar manager Eusebio Unzue had made an initial decision over team leadership in the grand tours, with the website claiming that Nairo Quintana would focus on the Giro while Alejandro Valverde would be the leader at the Tour. However, Nairo Quintana refuses to confirm the rumours and claims that nothing has been decided yet.

The courses for the two first grand tours of the season have both been unveiled and Quintana have praised both of them. Originally, he said that he wanted to go back to the Tour de France to improve this year's second place but at the Giro presentation, he claimed to prefer the Italian grand tour over the French one.

With its 9 summit finishes, the Giro course appears to be better suited to the Colombian's characteristics as a pure climber. That is likely to have played a role in the initial decision made by Unzue as reported by Biciclismo in the weekend. However, the website made it clear that a final decision wouldn't be made until the team's training camp in December.

Asked to confirm that he would be the Giro leader, Quintana refused to reveal anything about his plans, only repeating what he has already said numerous times.

"My goal is to do one of the three grand tours and to once again finish on the podium," he told Revista Mundo Ciclistico. "I want to give victories and joy to Colombia.

"We've been considering the options and we have not decided anything yet," he added. "The idea is to go to one of the races to do well for me and the team. They both have attractive routes: I really like the Giro but Tour also has some nice mountains. We will study it well not to make any mistakes."

In 2013, Quintana showed his true potential when he finished 2nd, won a stage and took both the polka-dot and white jerseys in the Tour de France. He added stage wins and overall victories in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and the Vuelta a Burgos to make it a truly memorable season for the Colombian.

Quintana admits that the results exceeded his expectations.

"It was an excellent balance," he said. "I could not ask for more beacse I was at the races I wanted and I did well. I expected a good season but this was really spectacular and more than I expected."

Quintana was not the only Colombian who excelled on the biggest scene. With Rigoberto Uran, Sergio Henao and Carlos Betancur also scoring many points in the biggest events, the South American country finished 3rd in the WorldTour rankings behind Spain and Italy.

With more Colombians joining the pro ranks in 2014 - Quintana's brother Dayer is one of them - much more is in store.

"We are the second best country in the world [actually, they are only 3rd in the rankings]," Quintana said. "And we will grow with more Colombians on different teams. In 2011, we had four or five riders. Next year, there will be more than 30 Colombians on ProTeams and Professional Continental teams.

One of the teams that have played an important role in the revival of Colombian cycling is the squad simply known as Colombia. Being made up purely of Colombian riders, the team rode the Giro in 2013 and won its first WorldTour race when Darwin Atapuma triumphed on a hard stage in the Tour de Pologne.

"Team Colombia needs to get stronger and keep learning," Quintana said about the team. "It pays off to stay in Europe and one day, the team will surely become a ProTeam."

Quintana will start his 2014 season in December when he takes part in the Movistar team camp.