There are many expectations for Marc Soler (1993) after he won the prestigious Tour de l'Avenir in 2015. At the same time he enjoyed his first professional season with the Movistar Team. In addition to his resounding success with the Spanish U23 team, he has had a debut year of debut without much pressure (the Volta a Catalunya, the Canadian classics and Lombardy were his only WorldTour races) but he still delivered good performances for the team and himself: he finished 18th in the Volta ao Algarve, 6th in the Klasika Primavera and was solid in the mountains in the Route du Sud and the Vuelta a Burgos.

However, Soler prefers to remain cautious, without promising anything yet. The young talent, who turned 22 this week, was on the podium on Saturday in the auditorium of the National Institute of Physical Education in Barcelona to receive the prize as the revelation of the year by the Catalan Cycling Federation. He was asked what race he would like to win in the future after his win at the biggest race on the U23 calendar. The answer was clear: “Just any race!”

After the ceremony, he reflected on his debut season in an interview with BiciCiclismo.

”I had a lot of respect,” he said. “I had respect for all those riders that I had watched on TV and now was riding against. I have admired those people and now they are next to me.

“From the beginning I had at a good level. I think I've adapted pretty quickly to the category and in that sense I have had no problems.

”In the Volta a Catalunya I got the reward for my good start. There I saw that I could be good at the highest level.”

However, the highlight was certainly the l’Avenir win.

“I knew I was going to do the race to try to win it,” he said. “I did not know if it was possible or not and in the end I was lucky and did well.

“I regard it as a reward for the years of effort, for the people I have behind me. It is a little reward and gratitude to all of them.”

With the Movistar team, it was a WorldTour race that was his highlight.

“It was again the Volta: my home race,” he said. “And I was able to fight for a stage win [he was fourth in stage 6 after having joined the right break.”

Soler is now looking to 2016 but has not made a schedule yet.

“We have not finalized anything. The idea is to keep progressing and see how far we get. It would be great to win something but it remains to be seen whether there will be enough forces.

“At the moment I have no hurry [to debut in a grand tour]. I'll be where the team wants me. I do not want to focus on grand tours now: I want to continue to grow and really know what I want, where I want to go.”