2023-07-11 14:00:20
BarcelonaMarc Soler (Vilanova i la Geltrú, 1993) suffered a serious accident in the Tour of the Basque Country in April. The doctors were able to save the thumb on his left hand, which had been left hanging. In the Tour de France, he is one of Tadej Pogacar’s team, the double winner of the French round.
How was the fall on the descent to Leitza at the end of the second stage in the Tour of the Basque Country?
— I was hit from behind on the descent and when I was about to fall, I instinctively put my hands on top of the guardrail, with such bad luck that I cut off part of the thumb of my left hand.
And what did you think when you looked at your hand?
— First, that he lost his finger. But luckily it was held by the tendon and the artery that hadn’t been severed. Doctor Javier Arteaga operated on me in Pamplona and everything was perfect. So far all is well, the hand recovered, and little by little…
How was the recovery?
— I was unemployed for a month. Without being able to do sports or much. Being an open wound and with the high risk of infection, I had to take a lot of antibiotics and be very careful. Once the month was over, with the wound closed I was able to start training normally. Of course, with the level of form of having stopped for a month, just like when you stop at the end of the season.
Did you think the Tour was dangerous?
– Yes, of course. And more with the team we are and the aspirations we have. We come here with a goal [guanyar el Tour amb Tadej Pogacar].
How did you prove to the team manager, Josean Fernández Matxin, that you could be among the 8 cyclists chosen for the Tour?
— It was more him. Matxin trusted me, he gave me 100% support. He told me I had to do everything I could to make it, and I did. We even skipped the Critérium du Dauphiné and the Tour de Suisse in order to continue preparing for the Tour and arrive in the best possible physical condition.
Do you in your team feel that you did not protect in the mountain stages as much as you would have liked your leader? On the other hand, Vingegaard did have, for example, Sepp Kuss as a gregarious to tighten the race.
— It’s happened twice, and Adam [Yates] it was close to Tadej. And in my case or that of another colleague, what we do is recover for the next day. At the end of the day, the Tour is three weeks and when you’re at this level you have to recover as best you can. You have to think about the last week in the Alps to be able to mark the differences. That will be a field that can. Very hard stages with many meters of unevenness that will define the outcome. If you have a bad day on a stage in the Alps you can lose a lot of time. We already saw it last year with Pogacar’s bad day. Everything you gain very slowly can be lost very quickly.
At what point in the race does the team expect the most from you?
— After the injury, all the preparation has been more focused on these last two weeks of the Tour, which is when the hardest stages and the longest stages come. I arrived at the Tour a little out of shape and I had to use the first week to start competing. In Puy de Dome I was already pretty good, practically until the end.
Do you think that the tough mid-mountain start in the Basque Country, very different from other starts of the Tour with calmer flat stages, can cause the overall strength of the cyclists to wane?
— Surely yes. It will take its toll on everyone. There can be surprises, with departures that no one expects in mid-mountain stages. Of those that at first glance don’t seem like it and that later are the ones that make the difference.
Will it be in the Vuelta this year?
– We hope so. First you have to finish the Tour as best as possible, hopefully in yellow, and from then on we’ll see.
Have you seen the Netflix documentary of last year’s Tour?
— No.
Doesn’t catch your eye?
— In the end, they sell what they want to sell. Since I’m already inside, I know what’s there, and that’s it. I don’t need to see it…
Will Tadej Pogacar win the Tour de France?
— We expect that. That’s what we came to do…
And can you get a stage win?
– No. The day he has to be on the break of the day will be to look back and make some move for Tadej, and the day he is not in front will be because he has to recover. So I won’t win a stage in the Tour de France.
#thought #losing #finger