Cycling: In the past six years, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) has won the Ruta del Sol five times. This year, the old master skipped the tour of Andalusia. Our 5towatch protégé Marc Soler took over the role of captain for him. The Spaniard proved once again that his team can rely on him and that he is perhaps Spain's greatest talent.
Soler gets going: third at the Ruta del Sol
At the Tour Down Under, Marc Soler already started the new season as captain of his strong team Movistar. In Australia, however, the form should not be enough for good results. In the end, only rank 34 jumped out in the overall ranking. At least he left on the fifth stage to Willunga Hill with 18th place, his talent flashed briefly.
After a break of around three weeks, he continued in his home country of Spain. At the Ruta Del Sol he took over the role of captain together with Mikel Landa because the five-time overall winner Alejandro Valverde decided not to start. At first it looked like Landa was the stronger of the two, but that assumption turned out to be wrong. Marc Soler finished in the top 6 on three stages and secured himself with a strong Time trial in the end even third place in the overall classification.
"I knew I was in good shape. But I'm still a bit surprised that I was able to beat all my rivals for the podium today. I worked hard to get better at the time trial. It seems like I'm on the right track.”
#64RdS The final image of the podio @VCANDALUCIA, with @solermarc93 junto a Wellens y Poels. ¡Felices de verte seguir progress ante los mejores del mundo! #somHiMarc pic.twitter.com/zHVnQnp87I
- Movistar Team (@Movistar_Team) 18. February 2018
Now it's off to the WorldTour races with momentum
After another short break, Marc Soler will continue racing in the WorldTour. However, he will probably not be the captain at Paris-Nice (March 4th to 11th) and the Tour of Catalonia (March 19th to 25th). Nevertheless, his nominations and his roles in previous tours show that Movistar's sport directors also think a lot of their young Spanish protégé.
That's no wonder, because Marc Soler has already proven his talent several times. In addition, at 38, leader Alejandro Valverde is certainly not the youngest. Team Movistar may have two other trump cards up their sleeves in Mikel Landa and Nairo Quintana, who currently rank ahead of Marc Soler, but Spanish cycling needs new heroes. Marc Soler could become one.
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