Juan Mauricio Soler Hernández (born January 14, 1983, in Ramiriquí, Boyacá) is a Colombian former professional

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most com ...

, who last rode for

UCI ProTour The UCI ProTour was a series of road bicycle racing, road bicycle races in Europe, Australia and Canada organised by the Union Cycliste Internationale, UCI (International Cycling Union). Created by Hein Verbruggen, former president of the UCI, i ...

team . He competed in the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a ...

for the first time in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, winning stage 9, having broken away on the

Col du Galibier The Col du Galibier (el. ) is a mountain pass in the southern region of the France, French Dauphiné Alps near Grenoble. It is the eighth List of highest paved roads in Europe, highest paved road in the Alps, and recurrently the List of highe ...

. He won that year's

King of the Mountains The King of the Mountains (KoM) is an award given to the best climbing specialist in a men's cycling road race; in women's cycle racing, Queen of the Mountains (QoM) is used. While the title may be given to the rider who achieves the highest ...

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." He finished 11th overall that year. Soler had a career-ending crash in the 2011 Tour de Suisse.

Career

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. Soler made his Tour debut in the

2007 Tour de France The 2007 Tour de France the 94th running of Tour de France, the race, took place from 7 to 29 July. The Tour began with a prologue in London, and ended with the traditional finish in Paris. Along the way, the route also passed through Belgium and ...

, where he won the ninth stage, and won the mountains classification. 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. After his long history of injuries and illnesses, Soler won his first race in four years Sunday 12 June 2011 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.

Tour de Suisse crash

On Thursday 16 June 2011, 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 footpath at a speed of approximately 80 km/h. He hit a spectator and 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, and by 8 July 2011 his condition had stabilized enough for him to be moved to Spain. On the same date, VeloNews quoted an unnamed source saying that Soler showed signs of "serious cognitive deficits" due to his head injury. In January 2012 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. On July 17, 2012, Soler announced that he would not attempt to return to professional cycling.

Major results

;2005 : 1st Stage 14

Vuelta a Colombia The (Spanish for ''Tour of Colombia'') is an annual cycling road race, run over many stages throughout different regions in Colombia and sometimes Venezuela and Ecuador during the first days of August. It is organized by the Colombian Cyclin ...

;2006 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Circuit de Lorraine ::1st Stage 2 : 7th

Tre Valli Varesine The Tre Valli Varesine is a semi classic European bicycle race held in Varese, Italy. From 2005 to 2019, the race was organised as a 1.HC event on the UCI Europe Tour. In 2021 it joined the UCI ProSeries calendar after being cancelled in 2020. A ...

;2007 : 1st Jersey violet

Overall

Vuelta a Burgos Vuelta Ciclista a Burgos is an elite professional road bicycle racing event held annually in the Burgos (province), Burgos province of Spain. The men's Vuelta a Burgos has been a multi-day stage race as part of the UCI Europe Tour since 2005. In ...

::1st Stage 2 :

::1st

Mountains classification ::1st Stage 9 : 2nd

Milano–Torino Milano–Torino is a semi classic European single day cycling race, between the northern Italian cities of Milan and Turin over a distance of 199 kilometres. The event was first run in 1876 making it the oldest classic race in the world. The ...

;2008 : 2nd Overall Vuelta a Castilla y León ;2009 : 2nd Overall Settimana Lombarda : 5th Overall

: 6th

Trofeo Melinda Trofeo Melinda was a single-day road bicycle race held annually in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Italy. After 2005, the race was organised as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing com ...

: 9th Overall Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali ;2011 : 1st Stage 2

Tour de Suisse The Tour de Suisse () is an annual road cycling stage race. Raced over eight days, the event covers two weekends in June, and along with the Critérium du Dauphiné, it is considered a proving ground for the Tour de France, which is on the calend ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Soler, Mauricio Colombian male cyclists Colombian Tour de France stage winners 1983 births Living people Cyclists from Boyacá Department Tour de Suisse stage winners 21st-century Colombian sportsmen