One of those the team is surely most proud of, will be
Marc Soler. A key factor in
Jay Vine's King of the Mountains jersey victory, Soler was in almost every important breakaway, won a stage and was eventually rewarded for his continued efforts by receiving the super-combativity prize for the entire Grand Tour. “We have to leave this Vuelta happy,” said Soler in quotes collected by
Velo. “It was a shame about João because we think he could have challenged for the win, but the team didn’t give up.”
“After João left the race, we changed our tactic,” Soler continues. “We still wanted to get a rider in the top-10, and I did what the team asked of me, to move the race, to attack, to try to win stages,” the Spaniard concludes, a feat the team certainly achieved over the course of the three weeks of racing in Soler's homeland.
“Two years ago, I was on cloud nine, two stage wins and in the mountain jersey with a comfortable lead, ready to come to Madrid, and then disaster struck on stage 18,” King of the Mountains winner Vine said of the race. “And now to finish that up is fantastic, especially after the year that I had. I feel like my season is just starting, so I’m looking forward to the rest of it.”
“It’s pretty incredible. The recovery that I’ve had is amazing,” Vine concluded. “At the time, we didn’t really know if I would be able to ride again, let alone compete. So to be able to be here with the jersey, it was like a dream. To actually be able to pull it off is amazing.”