According to Colombian newspaper El Diario del Sur, Maurico Soler has been unable to leave his home country of Colombia due to administrative problems. Subsequently, the new Caisse d’Epargne recruit was unable to make the trip to Spain last week to join his team for the Mallorca Challenge.
Apparently, the Caisse d’Epargne rider submitted all of the necessary documentation to the Spanish embassy, but they were unable to take care of processing his information in a timely manner.
El Diario del Sur indicated that Soler’s paperwork should be sorted out in time for him to make the trip to Europe in mid-March. The Colombian’s first race with the team will then likely be the GP Miguel Indurain on April 3.
The 27-year-old climbed to the upper echelons of the cycling world in 2007, when the then Barloworld rider surprised everyone by winning stage 9 and the King of the Mountains competition in the Tour de France. The following year Soler’s bid to defend the polka dot jersey ended before it began, when he crashed in the final kilometers of race’s the first stage. A CT scan at the hospital later that day showed a microfracture in his wrist which forced him to withdrawal from the race.
Barloworld ended their cycling sponsorship last year, and the Caisse d’Epargne team of Alejandro Valverde picked up the Colombian to help in the mountains come July.