REMEMBERING
Manuel Soler
At just 17 years old, Manuel Soler became the youngest Spanish Trial Champion. He won four consecutive national titles from 1974 to 1977, and for the enormous talent shown, he was nicknamed
“El Monstruito” – little monster. This nickname accompanied him throughout his career, which ended after 25 years of competition. On January 20th, his sporting heart that had taken him to the top of the trials world betrayed him forever, and Manuel Soler passed away.
DATE-LINE: SPAIN 1976
TRES DIES DEL CINGLES: SECTION 12, LA ROCA
It is the second day of the Spanish event, which sees the reigning FIM World Champion, Yrjo Vesterinen, and the home rider, Manuel Soler, fighting section by section. They face a typical section of the Cingles with a stream full of stones and a final climb with roots and lots of mud; in reality, more than mud, it looks like foaming soap, which is the typical red mud found in this area. With the passage of each rider, the section becomes more and more difficult, especially in its final part. At the beginning of the day, some riders managed to climb it, but only the best riders can do it during the last half-hour, although only with the help of several feet down.
Halfway up, near the tape that defines the section boundaries, Vesterinen, his friend and teammate in Team Bultaco’ A’, Charles Coutard, and the President of the Moto Club Cingles, Ildefons Vilanova, are discussing the growing difficulty of the final part of the section. Both riders say it is becoming impossible, and they were waiting to watch their fellow teammate Soler, after which it will then be their turn.
The silence from the crowd announces that Soler is starting the section a little lower: he rides up the stream without any problem and seems to negotiate it with the help of a compass, such is his precise style. He arrives at the more difficult top part; two twists of the throttle, a third short blast in second gear, some body-lean, and that’s it. Soler manages to clean the section, and the roar of the public is deafening, to say the least.
Vesterinen is amazed; Coutard does not know how he did it, while Vilanova says, “You see, I was right: the section can be done”.
Vesterinen, with his cool calm, replies to Vilanova: “Manuel has done it, which is true. But the point is not that he cleaned it, but how he did it. So effortless that it seems to be an insult to the others!”
If a three-time FIM World Champion like Vesterinen says so, it must have been just like that. Ildefons Vilanova told me this story a few years ago when I was preparing an article dedicated to the story of ‘Tres Dies dels Cingles’ published in Classic Trial Magazine.
BRAVE HEART
Manuel’s sporting heart that had delivered so much success had warned him a few years earlier. At only 63 years of age, the brave heart betrayed him forever, snatching him from the affection of his loved ones and his supporters while resting in his country house in Sant Quirze Safaja, just five minutes from the start of the ‘Tres Dies del Cingles’ in Mas Badó, Spain.
His father, Juan Soler Bultó, was the favourite nephew of Don Paco Bultó, the founder of the Catalan motorcycle company, Bultaco. Juan Soler was also a double Catalunya Trial Champion in the years of 1964–1965 when the Spanish Championship did not exist.
As a co-founding partner of Bultaco, he also played the role of Sporting Director for a long period, and consequently, his son Manuel started in trials at a very young age. His father built up a special motorcycle tailor-made for him and, riding this machine, the young Manuel soon proved to be a prodigy.
In many trials, he rode out of competition because he was still too young, and people immediately realised that they had a great talent in front of him. So much so that Pedro Taulé, a well-known Bultaco dealer in Barcelona and an important member of the Bultaco’ Clan’, gave him the nickname ‘el Monstruito’ precisely because of the monster talent he had. Manuel Soler will remain ‘el Monstruito’ for life.
JUNIOR WINNER
He obtained his Junior competition license in 1973, and from that moment on, he began to win many trials. In 1974 he won the eight rounds of the Spanish Championship. At the age of 17, he became the youngest Spanish Trials Champion, succeeding his cousin Ignacio’ Yato’ Bultó, who had dominated the national competition from 1969 to 1972. In 1973, Fernando Muñoz won it.
Manuel was untouchable. He won four Spanish championships in a row until another great rider, Toni Gorgot, appeared on the scene. Manuel lost some motivation in Spain but focused on the World Championship. Although he no longer won the national title, he continued to be the most competitive Spanish driver internationally. He is best remembered for being the first Spanish rider to have won a world championship round in Finland in 1979; he came close to it on other occasions but finally succeeded in beating Yrjo Vesterinen in his own back garden.
1980 should have been his year in the world championship, but the season started badly, both for him and for the whole of the Bultaco Team. The financial situation of the Catalan motorcycle manufacturer was very bad, and workers began to strike. In the middle of the season, only Bernie Schreiber and Manuel Soler remained at Bultaco.
ALL CHANGE
After an excellent performance in the world championship in France with Schreiber first and Soler second, they too were forced to change manufacturers. At first, they both moved to the Italian Italjet brand, but in the end, only Schreiber remained, while Soler moved to Montesa.
Despite these problems, Manuel managed to finish the world championship in an honourable sixth position. He soon got used to the new Montesa and began to show his skills as a test rider too. In particular, he developed the white Cota 349 model known as the ‘White Wonder’ on which he rode in the 1981 world championship; this was Manuel Soler’s greatest season.
He won as many events as the young French World Champion Gilles Burgat, and he finished the world championship in fifth position. He had some poor results due to Montesa’s internal problems, which we will explain in a future article. Still, nevertheless, he won three rounds in Spain, Austria, and Germany, contributing to the success of the Spanish manufacturer in the constructors’ championship.
In 1982, Manuel set out to continue his climb to the top of the world championship and, with his friend and rival Toni Gorgot, they launched the Spanish and Montesa offensive to conquer the world. A knee injury from a few years before returned to hinder his progress, and Manuel was forced to undergo surgery after having three good rides with excellent results. He skipped the rest of the season and moved to Merlin, the brand created by his cousin Ignacio Bultó who promoted it in the trials world.
Soler became the top rider in the Merlin team along with Gabino Renales and Joan Freixas, but the results were not what he hoped for.
Manuel was already an older rider at just 25, and because the world of trials was changing, he decided to hang his boots up. Still, he continued to remain in the environment playing an important role in some events.
MAGIC MOMENTS
I will never forget a lunch with Manuel at ‘Tramonti 1980’, a famous Italian restaurant in Barcelona and a meeting place for many riders some years ago. That day we talked about a lot of things. He was a very kind man with a big heart, and at the same time, he knew he was a trials icon. I remember he said to me: “You know, one day I should write a book ... because otherwise all these things that I know and that I have lived, risk being lost”.
I replied: “If you want, you can tell the stories, and I will do the rest”.
“We should do this”, was the reply.
Unfortunately, this will not be the case. We continued to meet and share some magic times. I managed to get him to the Ventoux Trial Classic in 2011, and from that moment, he returned to spend some time in the classic trials world.
After Christmas, I should have met him in his home in Sant Quirze, where he had recently moved. It is only ten minutes from our weekend home, but I arrived out of time. Destiny took him away from us on January 20th in silence, the same as when he faced the difficult climb of the ‘Tres Dies del Cingles’ in 1976, section 12 — silencing everyone.