Juan Mauricio Soler will ride for Caisse d'Epargne in 2010. Colombian Spanish language newspaper El Tiempo reported on Monday that the climber has signed a contract with the Spanish ProTour squad.
El Tiempo reported that Saxo Bank and Cervélo TestTeam had also been interested in signing the 26-year-old, but Soler had reached an agreement with Caisse d'Epargne team director, Eusebio Unzué.
Riding for his current team, Barloworld, Soler most recently finished fifth overall at Vuelta a Burgos, behind winner and future teammate, Alejandro Valverde. The race marked an impressive return to competition for Soler who missed two months of the season due to tendonitis that had forced him out of the Giro d'Italia in May.
Soler had hoped for a strong performance at the Italian Grand Tour after a second place finish at the Settimana Lombarda, a month before the Giro. He finished fourth on the Giro's first mountain stage to San Martino di Castrozza [he may be promoted to third on the stage after Danilo Di Luca tested positive for EPO-CERA during the Giro – ed.], before withdrawing on stage 16.
Soler will leave Barloworld after three seasons. He began racing with the British registered Pro Continental squad in 2007, after starting his professional career at Italian squad Acqua & Sapone - Caffè Mokambo in 2006.
He won a stage and the mountains classification at the 2007 Tour de France.
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