The 28th edition of the Tour of Slovenia finished last Sunday in Novo mesto. In just five days, the peloton covered quite a substantial part of Slovenia ranging from Nova Gorica, Rogaška Slatina, Celje, Velika Planina, and Novo mesto. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) won the race, while Tratnik’s team mate Domen Novak (Team Bahrain Victorious) was third in the general classification. The most important goal for Jan was to get back to racing and help his team to achieve some good results.
»After more than a month I’m back at racing. Till the last minute the team and I weren’t really sure if I’m ready or not. Eventually, the pain in my wrist was not an issue anymore and we decided I can race the Tour of Slovenia. My main goal was to get back to the racing rhythm as soon as possible and help my team achieve some good results. I can say, I did a few mistakes during the race because after one month I didn’t know how good I am. All in all, I’m happy with my performance. As a team, we were very active during the race by starting a few attacks, which sometimes ended up unsuccessful. Nevertheless, we trained well and made the race more exciting. I’m happy I finished the race and improved my performance.
I saw a lot of fans throughout the race, which makes me very happy. It shows how cycling is growing in Slovenia. I would like to thank everybody for such warm support, especially my friends and family from Idrija, who did an amazing job organizing the “Syuk’s corner”. It was a little strange to race on the home roads because usually I ride there on the edge of the road, but this time we had the whole road for ourselves. It was a really special day that I will remember forever. I knew my friends and family are waiting for me at the “Syuk’s corner”, which got me to be a little emotional and I really wanted to ride there in the first position.
My energy is now focused on National Championship in the individual time trial. I hope I can recover well from the Tour of Slovenia and do a good race on Thursday.”
Photo: Matic Ozebek