KOM Champion back in Europe

2007 King of the Mountians Champion, Mauricio Soler (Barloworld) has arrived back in Europe, fully recovered from his injuries and optimistic about his form as he gets ready for the Tour de France.

Soler spent several weeks in Colombia, recovering from his injuries after his crash during stage two of the Giro d’Italia. He carried on in the race but was forced to pull out on May 21 in Cesena because of the pain in his left wrist.

X-rays showed a minor fracture and so Team Barloworld preferred to avoid taking any risks in the build-up to the Tour de France. The French race is the biggest goal of the season for the Colombian climber after winning the mountain stage to Briançon and the polka-dot jersey awarded to the best climber in the race in 2007.

Soler has recovered quickly while at home in Colombia and was able to take off the wrist brace so that he could train for the Tour de France with out any problems. He still feels slight pain but this normal and is due to the healing of the bone.

Since his arrival Soler has ridden his bike for a couple of hours and once he has recovered from jet-lag he will begin race-speed training behind a motorbike. “We can’t rush things but we know there are never any problems with Mauricio,” Directeur sportif Alberto Volpi said. “The most important thing is that he recovers from his long flight, then on Saturday we’ll begin some more specific training and gradually extend the distance. He’ll ride at speed, to get used to racing again, with rides on both his road and time trial bikes.”