Marc Soler 🇪🇸

Rider Type: Puncheur / Climber - Age: 29 - Weight/Height: 36.55 kg/m

If you haven't watched the Movistar docu-series on Netflix - it's well worth a gander. One of the highlights in our opinion is the stubborness and disobedience of Mr. Soler at times.

Here's a man who's job it is to be a domestiqué - but if he's having a good day, refuses to do so. From a betting perspective we're a big fan of that. It usually means longer odds (as the betting houses view him as supporting member of the team, say if Pogačar is there) but still gives us, as betters, a decent chance to win an E/W bet on him if goes for the win.

The problem is that he has a tendency to give up completely if he's not going to win - almost a sore loser attitude. Soler will go for the win, but if he realizes in the last few kilometers he's not going to get it, well, he may as well finish 50th. That doesn't spell well for us when we need a 1/2/3 position.

Recent Performance

Marc, in his most recent three tours this year has performed stubbornly well in our opinion with 13th, 38th, and 4th GC positions. The 4th was at the Volta Catalunya which had a strong start list comprised of Roglič and Remco taking slots 1 and 2 respectively. In our opinion this is indicative that he's shaping up to perform well in his next upcoming showing at the Tour de France.

We expect him to be a strong mountain domestiqué for Pogačar, but Soler should still have free reign on certain stages to go for the win

Later in the year, he'll potentially be given co-leadership for the Vuelta depending on how the Tour shakes out.

When to bet?

Marc's a safe bet to win stages for most punchy/decently hilly stages. If there's a massive climb at the end it might go to a better climber, but Marc can perform well on even the largest hill on a great day. But his great days are few and far between.

From a GC standpoint, because of how often he gives up or gets frustrated, we find he's a riskier pick for a 1/2/3 slot, given he seems to care not at all about being on the podium compared to being, say 9th. Keep that in mind.