Soler top-5 on exciting Vuelta mountain test

Marc Soler fought to 5th place on the first major mountain test on stage 6 of this years Vuelta España.

The climber stuck with the high quality break of the day from La Vall d’Uixó to Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (183.1km) which featured over 4,000 metres of vertical climbing and was won by Sepp Kuss (Jumbo Visma).

Within 15km of the stage there was a mass pile up in the peloton with Jay Vine affected and going down hard. The Australian suffered contusions to his left elbow and was taken to a nearby hospital, sadly unable to continue the race.

Meanwhile Juan Ayuso & Joao Almeida gained time on some of their GC rivals while finishing just 7’’ and 14’’ respectively behind the Jumbo Visma duo of Roglic and Vingegaard.

Soler : “I entered the breakaway with the idea of patrolling the front and dropping back to help Juan if needed behind. I didn’t have the legs to go for the stage but the most important today was that Juan finished close to the main rivals, which he did. Above all I hope that Jay Vine is feeling better after the crash he had.”

Ayuso : “It was a brutally hard stage, which was flat out from start to finish with what seemed like constant attacks. Roglic attacked first quite strongly and Vingenegaard followed after and instead of reacting and risking blowing up I kept my rhythm and fought my way back and managed to almost lose no time. It was a very very hard stage.”

Tomorrow’s stage from Utiel to Oliva (200.8km) will likely see another chance for the sprinters.

Stage 6 results

1.Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) 4:27:29
2.Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) +26’’
3.Romain Bardet (DSM) +29’’
5.Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) +46’’

General Classification after stage 6

1.Lenny Martinez (Groupama FDJ) 21:40:35
2.Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) +8’’
3.Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) +51’’