Nairo Quintana (Movistar) has inspected two stages of the 2014 Giro d'Italia parcour, the only individual time trial of the Italian Grand Tour and the summit finish at Oropa.

The intention of the Movistar Team seems to be that the Colombian climbing specialist will dispute the Italian race and fight for the podium and victory.

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Quintana did a reconnaissance tour of stages 12 and 14 of next year’s Giro; the 46.4 km time trial between Barbaresco and Barolo and the Oropa uphill finish, which marks the beginning of the real mountain stages in the 2014 edition of the Giro.

Including nine summit finishes, the Giro presents an ideal route for climbers and this has fuelled speculation that Quintana will be focusing on the Giro while opting to forgo the Tour de France, leaving it to his Movistar team mate Alejandro Valverde to do battle with Chris Froome (Sky). No official announcement about Quintana’s Grand Tour plans for 2014 have been made yet, though.