Marc Soler struggles to come in term with a tactical mistake that cost him victory on stage 10: "I'm angry about how Van Aert and Pacher got away from me"

Just as the breakaway was about to reach the intermediate sprint in the town of A Barroca, Marc Soler went down to his team car to get a water bottle. He grabbed it with his right hand, put it on his bike... and, just a few metres ahead, Wout van Aert used this opportunity to launch an attack, to seemingly secure points towards Green jersey competition, which soon turned out to be the decisive one.

The Belgian added the points for the intermediate sprint, but he did not stop there, because he saw that his attack had done damage and Soler was one of the victims. Only FDJ's Quentin Pacher was able to catch up to Van Aert and the trio behind them had never seen them again.

Aware of his good legs, and after winning the sprint for third at the finish line, the Catalan hit the handlebars in anger. Before speaking to anyone, he was quickly called to undergo the anti-doping control, since he was one of those summoned, and several minutes passed before he spoke to the press.

"It's a lost opportunity. I'll stick with the legs I'm having, which are good, but I'm angry about how Van Aert and Pacher got away from me. Then we have to finish, but I would have liked to finish with them," explained the two-time stage winner in La Vuelta.

Regarding that anger, the UAE rider explains what happened: "I went to the car to get some bottles, there was an intermediate sprint, the race was launched and when I wanted to... I couldn't make it," lamented Soler, who was the UAE Team Emirates' ace for the stage.