"I wasn't thinking of getting into the breakaway" - Marc Soler on yet another Vuelta win for UAE

For the fourth time in his career Marc Soler has ridden to a Vuelta a Espana victory, taking advantage of his incredible legs during stage 14, winning the stage despite having UAE Team Emirates - XRG itself chasing in the peloton behind.

"In the end, yes, an unexpected day, but very happy. No, I wasn't thinking of taking the breakaway, the idea was different, I followed Campenaerts who entered the breakaway and, well, once there I knew how to play," the Catalan said in a post-race interview.

Soler only showed his legs following the Alto de San Lorenzo, attacking twice from the front group still in the approach to the climb to La Farrapona, where he comfortably dropped all of his breakaway companions. The stage win looked in the pocket, even though behind it were his own teammates who one by own put their noses to the wind to raise the pace and potentially set up another attack from João Almeida. However the wind didn't favour that and ultimately Soler had free reign to go for the stage win, and he grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

About his strategy to win, he confessed that he knew the terrain very well and knew that the part before La Farrapona was hard enough to be able to generate an advantage that could not be recovered later in the stage:

"After the climb, I was on the climb on the wheel, I knew the valley as it was from the last time, it is a very hard valley in which as you make differences you can arrive. I had doubts with the air but I was very happy".

On the fact that the UAE team has already accumulated 7 stage wins in the Vuelta a España 2025 (2 by Jay Vine, 2 by Juan Ayuso, the team time trial, Joao Almeida's in the Angliru and now his own) he commented the following:

"It's incredible, I can't explain it, we've won fifty percent of stages in the Vuelta, it's wonderful."