The Is Marc Soler the Next Great Spanish Climber Thread

[Juan Pelota]

He hung with Valverde, Froome, and Contador today right up to the very end while making pace. Just 23 years old.

What else do we know about this guy? He finished 2nd overall in the Rut De Sud last year to his teammate Quintana and won the Tour de l'Avenir in 2015, which is always a good sign.

Can he TT?

 

[veji11]

Soler and Gaudu are 2 very good surprises today... Great potential.

 

[Ruudz0r]

Soler is doing great he is having a great season and made a nice step since last year. Ruben Fernandez is another young Spanish diamond in the Movistar ranks.

 

[Cordi333]

Yes, he can TT. Bronze medal in 2014 amateur Spanish TT championships. 2014 was his take off year, he was very impressive in the Spanish amateur races and because of that Movistar signed him in 2015.

 

[KyoGrey]

Re:

Soler is doing great he is having a great season and made a nice step since last year. Ruben Fernandez is another young Spanish diamond in the Movistar ranks.

Rubén Fernández is no longer considered a young rider. He still has room to improve but he is not in that category.

I'm sure that other people will explain it better than me, but in conclusion: we have in Spain some interesting upcoming talent (unfortunately much less than in past decades) of which only Soler and Enric Mas can be considered of GV-contending potential.

On the other hand, we more than survive thanks to our great champions Contador and Valverde expanding their prime way past normal standards, seeing how riders in their prime like Landa and Izagirre fare, and developing the next generation for the 2020's.

As bad as the current situation is, it could've been way worse if for example Contador and Valverde had not been able to sustain their level consistently after their sanctions or without Purito's unlikely leap forward. We could've had a depressing transition between the golden generation born in the late 70s - early 80s (the 2 mentioned above, Purito, Sanchez, Freire, Sastre etc) and the generation born well into the 1990s.

 

[Juan Pelota]

Tell me more about Enric Mas.

 

[BigMac]

Hi Lance.

 

[Mr.White]

This so much more than I expected from him. He'll be one hell of a rider!

 

[Juan Pelota]

Apparently his performance today was the fastest climbing performance of someone aged 23 since Andy Schleck

 

[the asian]

Re:

Apparently his performance today was the fastest climbing performance of someone aged 23 since Andy Schleck

Faster than Nairo?

 

[Valv.Piti]

I expected Ruben Fernandez to be the better rider. Don't ask me why.

Just watching Soler ride you can tell he has an amazing motor. He can just go on and on and on, it was the stuff he did in Route du Sud. If he rode better tactically, he would also have won that stage in Paris-Nice. And lets not forget his performance the day before towing Gorka izagirre up the Couiloille.

Really good to La Molina. Set up Valverde perfectly and he is very gracious for that, but today was still his best overall performance. Simply amazing. Both Froome, Contador and Valverde noted in their post race interviews just how strong Soler was.

I don't know exactly the rider he is gonna be, but he seems durable and consistent, the kinda rider that doesn't fold and just continues pushing watts out. And most importantly can tolerate the extreme pain. He is also quite a bit bigger than the other riders, no? With those skills, I reckon he could be a very good GT-rider.

He will also be selected for Pais Vasco, I hope, and then hopefully will get a big break and either focus on being 100% for TdF or La Vuelta. If he chooses the ladder, he probably will be one of the absolute best climbers in the race considering everyone else will have ridden Giro or TdF.

 

[Charly_Gaul]

And where's the David Gaudu Superstar thread? This the appropriate place to talk Champion potential about.

Tour of L'Avenir and Course de la Paix winner. 20 years old neoprofessional rider that improves Pinot power data at his same age and is only 50" far of Contador and Froome on his first WT race on a supermountain stage (finishing 7° against all GT riders on good form on top mountain race like when have u seen something like that on such a youngster?)

Soler has great legs great engine, but where's the winner nature?

 

[Juan Pelota]

Re:

And where's the David Gaudu Superstar thread? This the appropriate place to talk Champion potential about.

Tour of L'Avenir and Course de la Paix winner. 20 years old neoprofessional rider that improves Pinot power data at his same age and is only 50" far of Contador and Froome on his first WT race on a supermountain stage (finishing 7° against all GT riders on good form on top mountain race like when have u seen something like that on such a youngster?)

Soler has great legs great engine, but where's the winner nature?

Soler won the Tour of L'Avenir as well.

Gaudu has great potential. Is he really 5'8 and only 117 pounds? That's insane.

 

[deValtos]

His riding reminds me of 2012 Quintana ...

 

[Valv.Piti]

His riding reminds me of 2012 Quintana ...

Thats actually a very good comparison so far!

 

[Valv.Piti]

I think he was on the podium like 4 times today.

The attack he made today looked easy, but unfortunately Contador chased him down. Could have been a good and deserving stage victory for Soler after this race where he has raced out of his mind.

 

[Mr.White]

Re:

I think he was on the podium like 4 times today.

The attack he made today looked easy, but unfortunately Contador chased him down. Could have been a good and deserving stage victory for Soler after this race where he has raced out of his mind.

it seems like second place mattered for "The Great One" this time

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

I think he was on the podium like 4 times today.

The attack he made today looked easy, but unfortunately Contador chased him down. Could have been a good and deserving stage victory for Soler after this race where he has raced out of his mind.

it seems like second place mattered for "The Great One" this time

If rumours were to be true, he should even have faked a puncture and ended up 4th overall!

 

[ice&fire]

Last time Volta a Catalunya visited Lo Port (in 1991) there was a 23yo stagier at ONCE riding his first pro race who managed to be with the best in that climb (Herrera & Delgado) until the final km and get to the finish in the first group with the likes of Indurain. He finished 3rd in GC. Manolo Saiz gave him a pro contract immediately. His name was Alex Zülle.

 

[WheelofGear]

Re:

Soler is doing great he is having a great season and made a nice step since last year. Ruben Fernandez is another young Spanish diamond in the Movistar ranks.

Ruben Fernandez is a puncheur IMO. A puncheur/explosive climber for brutal climbs such as Muro de Aia (and the rest of the Pais Vasco climbs), Mirador De Ézaro, Montelupone, maybe Mur de Huy.

Not made for longer mountains.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Marc Soler ya tiene calendario hasta junio: Rioja, Amstel, Flecha, Lieja y Dauphiné. Correrá junto con Valverde las Ardenas.

Ardennes and Dauphine. Actually strikes me as the kind of guy who could do very well in especially Liege considering his big engine. Dauphine another big scene to test his climbing and then most likely either TdF or Vuelta.

 

[ice&fire]

I doubt Movistar will send him to the TdF as his first GT.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

I doubt Movistar will send him to the TdF as his first GT.

Me too, Vuelta is the most likely of the two of them.

Anyways, he will ride GP Miguel Indurain, but will still skip Pais Vasco which is the smart thing to do.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Always great when the hype actually leads somewhere. Soler has been incredible against the clock this year which seems to be one of his great weapons, I could see him riding some amazing long time trials deep into a GC. His climbing is still a little bit of an unknown this year, he wasn't great in Andalucía, but that also wasn't a climb that suited him at all. The climb on stage 7 is right down his valley on the other hand - the podium is definitely within his grasp. After Paris-Nice he will be riding Catalunya, the race where he podiumed last year after the two great Spaniards, Contador and Valverde. Thats also a race where I have high expectations for him, but he will once again be domestiquing for the great one. Obviously.

Im hyped! Mancebo with a lethal TT, lets go.

 

[Koronin]

Let's add one more thing. He's not buckling under the pressure of leadership at Paris-Nice. First race he's gone into as race leader for Movistar and he's right there fighting for the podium. Yes all the hype and he's at least in the category of that hype. I am looking forward to him getting a bigger role. With Catalonia being his next race, and yes in the role of domestique for Bala, let's see how he recovers. Last year he got a podium in that domestique role, he could do it again. Plus the pictures of him on that podium last year with the two great Spaniards (Alejandro and Alberto) were great. Almost in a way the start of the passing of the torch to Soler.

Glad you pulled this thread up as I was going to go searching to see if there was one for him.