155 days out of racing - Key UAE rider returns to competition after extensive Giro d'Italia injuries
Cycling
Marc Soler is ready to race again after one of the most difficult spells of his recent career. The Catalan rider is among the UAE Team Emirates - XRG riders selected for the Tour of Guangxi 2026, the final event on the World Tour calendar. He will pin on a race number for the first time in 155 days, since his serious crash at the Giro d'Italia 2026.
His return marks the end of a lengthy recovery beset by injuries and a fresh setback that derailed his first attempt to race again.
The Spanish rider has not raced since the mass crash on stage 2 of the Giro, an incident that affected numerous riders and hit the Emirati team particularly hard. Soler has since endured a recovery that took longer than expected and came close to being extended further as he prepared to return to competition.
Soler was touted to race both Giro d'Italia and Tour de France, but the latter became unlikely as there was complete silence around the Spaniard throughout June.
Soler initially planned to return at the Vuelta a España. However, just as he began preparing for his comeback, misfortune struck again during a training ride ahead of the Vuelta a Burgos. The incident caused further injuries and forced him to postpone his plans.
Marc Soler will return to racing at the Tour of Guangxi
The Catalan rider suffered three broken ribs, a heavy impact to the radial head and significant damage to his elbow. The latest setback ruled out a return on his planned dates and prolonged an especially difficult season for the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider.
Now, the Tour of Guangxi offers Soler a final chance to put that chapter behind him. The Chinese race will allow him to regain his racing rhythm and feel like a cyclist again after several months away from competition. His return is also positive news for a team that has faced several setbacks this season.
UAE targets wins to close out the season
Soler will be joined in China by Julius Johansen, Rune Herregodts, Juan Sebastián Molano, Jhonatan Narváez, Rui Oliveira and Florian Vermeersch, who recently competed at the Gravel World Championships. The Emirati team will head to the race with a lineup aiming to make the most of the calendar's final opportunities to add to its win tally.
The team will look to finish the season strongly after a difficult run-in marked by several problems, including Tadej Pogačar's crash, which prevented them from challenging for the red jersey at the Vuelta a España. Against that backdrop, Soler's recovery is welcome news for a squad keen to end the year among the sport's leading teams.
The Catalan brings experience to the team and has the chance to race again without waiting for the start of next season. After so many months of injuries and setbacks, simply returning to the start line is an important step for him.
Read also
A historic year for UAE Team Emirates XRG
Despite the difficulties of recent months, UAE Team Emirates-XRG has enjoyed an outstanding season. The Emirati team has recorded 75 wins in 2026 and is once again the most successful team of the year.
That figure, however, falls short of the 97 wins it achieved in 2025, when it set a new all-time record by surpassing HTC-Columbia's mark. Matching that total is now impossible, but the team will head to the Tour of Guangxi hoping to add more wins to its remarkable tally.
For Marc Soler, the race will mean something different. Beyond UAE's collective ambitions, the Spanish rider will aim to rediscover his racing form after a year shaped by his Giro crash and a second injury that delayed his return.
After 155 days away from racing, the Catalan is ready to pin on a race number again. The Tour of Guangxi will mark his comeback and give him the chance to end an especially tough season with the long road to recovery finally behind him.
Jorge BorregueroWriter
Jorge Borreguero is a journalist with a degree from the Complutense University of Madrid and has been a writer for Cyclinguptodate and Ciclismoaldia since early 2023. In this role, he has played a key part in the evolution of the website, particularly as a specialist covering Movistar Team. He regularly writes race reports, analytical pieces, and in-depth features about the team, and has conducted exclusive interviews and attended multiple team presentations, providing readers with firsthand insights into one of the leading professional cycling squads.
Throughout his career, Jorge has maintained a strong focus on sports journalism, gaining experience across a variety of disciplines, including basketball and football. However, his current work is almost entirely dedicated to cycling, contributing extensively to Ciclismoaldia and its sister website Cyclinguptodate. For these platforms, he combines thorough research with detailed reporting to deliver high-quality content, ranging from race previews and results to expert analysis of teams and riders.
Jorge’s reporting is marked by accuracy, depth, and a commitment to providing readers with reliable and authoritative information. His direct engagement with teams, athletes, and events ensures that his coverage reflects firsthand knowledge and professional insight. Through his work, he has established himself as a trusted voice in professional cycling journalism, bridging the gap between the sport and its global audience while maintaining rigorous editorial standards.
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- Pissing out?? Who is forcing them? They can follow Ayuso's example. And they can be leaders on another team. Ayuso's example again. :)MajorPayne12-10-2026
- Hmm it's an interesting take with certain disclaimers e.g. comparing them at the same age (Pogi wasn't given chances so early in his career so we will never know), the level of the competitors in the race or tour (really hard to compare, as you would be looking at multiple competitors, let alone comparing just Seixas vs Pogi). In any case, Seixas' future certainly looks very bright, especially as he has the advantage of youth, access to new scientific knowledge/methods that weren't around when Pogi started, and most importantly has Pogi as an extremely good example to aspire to (e.g. copying training methods, nutrition, tactics, race craft, etc., to list just a few...).Pogboom12-10-2026
- > He’s so much better than Pogacar was at 20 years old It does not mean NOTHING. What is important how long you can be at the top. Most of the best riders are (really) good for 4-5 years (Alaphilippe, Sagan), of course outside this window you can win stages etc. but forget about GC winner in main tours. Talents like Pogacar (in case of GC) or MvdP (monuments or CX - 15 years being on top!!!) are rarity. It might be that if you start being good fast, you end up being good still young.averagecyclist12-10-2026
- Winning Il Lombardia would surely mean much more to Remco than to Seixas, after his crash there and then second places where he was far ahead of the rest but still far behind Pog, and had to blink away tears at the finish. Wonder if he will ever have such a good chance again.Hills3312-10-2026
- Yeah him, Del Toro for sure - not that they all pan out, but then how can you tell what someone was going to be capable of if they never got to be an out-and-out leader? Either way, their squad has a lot of riders who could be leaders at other teams but they are safely inside the tent now, pissing out.wrsty12-10-2026
- "removing any barriers to their golden goose" What barriers? Ayuso maybe? :) :) :)MajorPayne12-10-2026
- And let's not forget, Tadej Pogačar won his first Tour de France eating pizza, drinking beer and playing Playstation. This kept goinig on for another two years and when he lost the Tour 2X to Jonas, things dramaticaly changed. Today Pogi is a "killing machine." In 2024, in the Tours rest day, Pogi said: "If I compare the year 2019 to what we're doing today, we were real amatuers." ... That is the difference between Pogi and Seixas. Seixas immediately got professional help and advice, he knows exactly what he wants and is already at a very high level. So, the paths of Pogi and Seixas weren't the same.PogiSloFans12-10-2026
- Paul Seixas took off from the WC to Lombardia - smart move it seems. Although Remco at least got the Euro jersey.mij12-10-2026
- Why on EARTH would a rider capable of leading races, leading an entire squad in any race he wishes to go and be (yet another) second fiddle rider to his main competition? Especially when his career is in the ascendant, holding the hope of a nation. You want to be the best - then you want to race against the best. I wish UAE as a team all the best for the most part, but I really dislike their approach of removing any barriers to their golden goose by warehousing them on their squad until they get sufficiently bored and/or pissed off and leave.wrsty12-10-2026
- the manner of victory is not Pogi since 2024, Pogi is 50+ k attack, this was last hill/mountain attack, the std attack.abstractengineer12-10-2026
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