Mauricio Soler

Mauricio Soler

Personal information
Full name	Juan Mauricio Soler Hernández
Nickname	El Lancero
Born	(1983-01-14) January 14, 1983 (age 29) Ramiriquí, Colombia
Height	1.90 m
Weight	70 kg
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Climbing specialist
Professional team(s)
2006 2007–2009 2010–2011	Acqua & Sapone Barloworld Caisse d'Epargne
Major wins
1 Stage Tour de France Tour de France, King of the Mountains (2007) Circuit de Lorraine (2006)
Infobox last updated on 4 January 2012

Juan Mauricio Soler Hernández (born 1983-01-14 in Ramiriquí, Boyacá) is a Colombian professional road bicycle racer, who last rode for UCI ProTour team Movistar Team.^[1] He competed in the Tour de France for the first time in 2007, winning stage 9 having broken away on the Col du Galibier. He won that year's King of the Mountains title. Soler stated the stage win was "a victory from heaven. It is the biggest win of my life, and in my first Tour de France. I didn't think it would come so quickly."^[2] He finished 11th overall that year.

Soler began racing at the age of 17, he stated a race in his village is what made him decide to become a professional cyclist. Upon becoming a professional, Soler spent a year racing in his native Colombia and soon after joined the Acqua & Sapone team where he was guided by Claudio Corti, who later brought him to the Barloworld team.^[3]

Soler's 2008 tour dreams were shattered, after having crashed in the final kilometers of the first stage. He was forced to drop out after a CT scan showed a microfracture in his wrist.

Having made the switch to the Caisse D'Epargne team in 2010, he was due to compete in that year's Tour de France, his first in two seasons, and was favoured to be among the top 20 riders. However, due to a knee injury sustained following a crash in the Critérium du Dauphiné, he was not fit to take part in the Tour de France.^[4]

After his long history of injuries and illnesses, Soler won his first race in four years 2011-06-12 (Sunday) by winning stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse with its difficult mountain top finish. It marked a return to his status as a world class climber; Soler and his team were poised compete in the Tour de France in July.^[5]

2011-06-16 (Thursday), early in stage six of the Tour de Suisse and while in second place in the general classification, Soler hit a small raised piece of curbing from an adjacent foot path at a speed of approximately 80km/h. He hit a spectator, was thrown into a solid fence. He suffered a fractured skull, a cerebral edema, other fractures and hematomas. Soler was placed in a medically induced coma. Within two days he had shown signs of improvement but was still in the coma.^{[6] [7][8][9]}, and by 2011-07-08 his condition had stabilized enough for him to be moved to Spain. On 2011-07-08, VeloNews quoted an un-named source saying that Soler showed signs of "serious cognitive deficits" due to his head injury ^[10]. 2012-01-05 it was reported in VeloNews that Soler had moved back to Colombia to begin his recuperation. In a meeting with reporters, Soler reported that he was still weak and easily fatigued ^[11].

Victories

References

External links

• Profile at Barloworld official website
• Mauricio Soler at Trap-Friis.dk. Archive copy at the Wayback Machine (archived 24 May 2011)

v t e Tour de France mountains classification winners 1933 Vicente Trueba 1934 René Vietto 1935 Félicien Vervaecke 1936 Julián Berrendero 1937 Félicien Vervaecke 1938 Gino Bartali 1939 Sylvère Maes 1947 Pierre Brambilla 1948 Gino Bartali 1949 Fausto Coppi 1950 Louison Bobet 1951 Raphaël Géminiani 1952 Fausto Coppi 1953 Jesús Loroño 1954 Federico Bahamontes 1955–1956 Charly Gaul 1957 Gastone Nencini 1958–1959 Federico Bahamontes 1960–1961 Imerio Massignan 1962–1964 Federico Bahamontes 1965–1967 Julio Jiménez 1968 Aurelio González Puente 1969–1970 Eddy Merckx 1971–1972 Lucien Van Impe 1973 Pedro Torres 1974 Domingo Perurena 1975 Lucien Van Impe 1976 Giancarlo Bellini 1977 Lucien Van Impe 1978 Mariano Martínez 1979 Giovanni Battaglin 1980 Raymond Martin 1981 Lucien Van Impe 1982 Bernard Vallet 1983 Lucien Van Impe 1984 Robert Millar 1985 Luis Herrera 1986 Bernard Hinault 1987 Luis Herrera 1988 Steven Rooks 1989 Gert-Jan Theunisse 1990 Thierry Claveyrolat 1991–1992 Claudio Chiappucci 1993 Tony Rominger 1994–1997 Richard Virenque 1998 Christophe Rinero 1999 Richard Virenque 2000 Santiago Botero 2001–2002 Laurent Jalabert 2003–2004 Richard Virenque 2005–2006 Michael Rasmussen 2007 Mauricio Soler 2008 Bernhard Kohl 2009 Franco Pellizotti 2010 Anthony Charteau 2011 Samuel Sánchez