Juan Mauricio Soler (Barloworld) is the new leader (Image credit: Freddy Guérin)
Team Barloworld's Mauricio Soler showed he's kept his form from the Tour de France, where he won the mountains classification, by winning the second stage of the Vuelta a Burgos Wednesday.
Stage two travelled 149km from Areniscas de los Pinares to Lagunas de Neila and featured four KOMs and a steep uphill finish which the Colombian climber exploited to move away from the lead bunch of 18 riders, including Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) and Jose Angel Gomez Marchante (Saunier Duval - Prodir).
Soler captured a solo win with a 17 second margin and took over the overall leadership in the race. The Columbian was one of the main protagonists to splinter the group up the final 10km climb to Lagunas de Neila. With just two kilometers to go and only a few riders remaining at the front, Soler attacked again, and no one was able to stay in his wake. Carlos Castaño (Karpin-Galicia) and Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval-Prodir) finished second and third.
