Last Sunday, Jan Tratnik celebrated his 35th birthday - a good reason to take a closer look at the new member to Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe. The second reason? The upcoming Opening Weekend with the Omloop Nieuwsblad, which Tratnik surprisingly won last year.
Jan Tratnik comes from Idrija, a small Slovenian town with just 6,000 inhabitants. He is not the first professional cyclist that the town has produced - and yet his path into cycling was unusual.
A late start with a rapid rise
“I started cycling when I was 17”, says Jan. "There was a mountain bike race at school where I came third - wearing normal clothes and shoes, while the others were real mountainbikers. I was fascinated from then on. A year later, I bought my first road bike."
But it almost became a different sport. "I tried a lot of things: Soccer, skiing, basketbal", he says. However, a career as a basketball player would have been difficult anyway - not least because there is already a Slovenian Jan Tratnik in basketball who is 20 centimetres taller. “But I think I made the right decision for me.”
Tratnik's late love for cycling did not stop him from climbing the ranks quickly. Just two years after his first road bike, he was already riding at Continental level, and another two years later he reached the WorldTour. Today, he is one of the veterans in the peloton. But his path was anything but straightforward.
Success, setbacks and a love of sport
His palmarès includes national championship titles and a stage win at the Giro d'Italia - but he has also had his fair share of setbacks. “What drives me is my love for the sport”, says Jan. "It gives me freedom. I enjoy being outdoors, discovering new places and meeting people. It has become more difficult in recent years, but as long as I feel this passion, I can see myself in the pro peloton for some more years."
And this passion was evident exactly one year ago when he won the Omloop Nieuwsblad - in his second participation. Tratnik has only contested a few cobble races in his career, but when hills are mixed in with the pavé passages, the terrain suits him. He already proved this in 2022 with ninth place at Dwars door Vlaanderen and twelfth place at the Tour of Flanders.
How the seasons first classic went for him? Find out in the second part.