Defiant Soler on the attack again at Vuelta España

UAE Team Emirates were once again on the offensive on stage 13 of the Vuelta España, with Marc Soler taking 3rd place on the uphill finale on the stage from Lugo to Puerto de Ancares (176km).

The original break saw 3 UAE riders up the road with Jay Vine and Brandon McNulty alongside Soler in the hunt for a third stage win for the Emirati team, though a crash with -19km on a descent saw Vine and McNulty come down. McNulty was worse off in the crash sliding out under a crash barrier though thankfully escaped with just some abrasions.

This left just Soler who had been acting as a decoy for the other riders though now was challenged with going for the stage himself. Though various attempts were made by Soler to get away it was Mike Woods (Israel Premier Tech) who proved the strongest on the steep ramps to the line and pulled out an impressive solo win.

Soler : “We gave it everything. Today the legs were a bit heavy and the idea was to collaborate with Brandon and Jay to go for a win for the team but unfortunately they crashed and the plans changed a bit. I did a big effort to close a gap after Campenaerts and Van Aert attacked and used up a lot of energy. Jay in particular was feeling good so we wanted to set something up for him in the final. Everybody is suffering in this Vuelta, it has been very hard one and we have a hard weekend ahead but we’ll try again.”

Stage 13 results

1.Mike Woods (Israel Premier Tech) 4:19:51

2.Mauro Schmidt (Jayco-AlUla) +45”

3.Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) +1’11”