Visma-Lease A Bike came into the 2024 Opening Weekend, having dominated the pair of Belgian season openers last spring before going on to do the same for much of the Spring Classics.
It was no surprise, then, that the Dutch squad repeated the trick at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday, once again finishing in Ninove with a rider bookending the podium spots.
What may have come as something of a shock, however, is that, on a team featuring cobbled Classics stars Wout van Aert, Dylan van Baarle, and Christophe Laporte, it was Slovenian veteran Jan Tratnik who ended the day with the triumph in Ninove.
34-year-old Tratnik does have previous results in the spring, having finished 12th at the 2022 Tour of Flanders in addition to a top-10 placing at Dwars door Vlaanderen three days earlier. He didn't enter the second Omloop of his career among the top favourites, though being a key member of the strongest team in the peloton surely helped.
"Maybe I didn't believe enough in the morning or before that I can win this because I know I got chances last week in Algarve and in Spain," Tratnik said in the post-race press conference. "But I also know that here we have such a strong Classics team. But in the end, I believed in the last kilometre that I could win, so it was good."
Tratnik went clear just over 8km outside Ninove, taking Nils Politt along with him after the pair had been among a reduced chase group to make contact with the front of the race on the day's final climb of the Bosberg.
His Visma-Lease A Bike teammates – Van Aert, Laporte, Tiesj Benoot and Matteo Jorgenson – had been out front in an ever-reducing group since the 130km to go mark after splitting the peloton to pieces in the high winds that struck the race.
Tratnik said he was right at the front when the split happened but missed out through a small mistake taking a corner.
"When we started the echelons, I started with Wout and Affini, but then in one corner, I did one mistake because I broke too much and I lost 10 positions," he said.
"Then the team put it in the wind again, and I think I was one of the last who dropped. But in the end, we had five guys at the front and me and Dylan behind, so for us, it was just about staying behind, controlling attacks and then trying to race if it comes together."
He said he didn't believe things would come back together, with the lead group enjoying over a minute's lead with 30km to go. The group, however, had been whittled down to just six by that point before Jorgenson went solo in the lead-in to the Muur van Geraardsbergen.
The American's move looked like a good bet for glory at that point, but the official time gap gave lie to the fact that the chasers behind – Tratnik included – were closing in fast.
"Suddenly [the gap] came down and in the final 20km it was just about trying to stay on the front and believe," he said. "[The attack] was just instinct. The race was so hard in the last two or three hours that I just took two breaths and then I could see that all guys were stopping, and I came from behind with the speed.
"I heard that I had a gap but not more because there was a lot of talk from the directors. If such a big name in cycling tells you [to go] then it gives you wings. The biggest problem was how to win in the sprint because Christophe and Wout are really fast in the sprint, but I'm 65kg, and I'm not.
"We race to win and in the last 2km I realised I had a bit of responsibility for that. I knew that Nils was also strong in the sprint. So, I wasn't sure if I could do it, but I think I played a good kilometre, and I didn't come to the front."
Overcoming adversity
Tratnik stuck to Politt's wheel as the pair rode to the line in Ninove before he inevitably jumped out from behind and struck out for glory – the biggest win of his career alongside a 2020 Giro d'Italia breakaway stage win in San Daniele del Friuli.
He's had to fight back from adversity in order to achieve it, though. In recent history, there was a knee problem that required surgery last year – "At first, they said the season was over, but I was already on the bike after four weeks," he said.
There was also a near-career-ending fight with an eating disorder in years past, one which saw him drop out of the WorldTour at the age of 21 and almost call it quits before spending five years at the Continental level.
He'd eventually turn pro again in 2017 with CCC before moving to the WorldTour with Bahrain two years later and then to his current squad last season.
"When I look back on my career, it wasn't the brightest career with many ups and downs," Tratnik said. "I came really quickly to the best team at QuickStep. And then I had many problems, dark years, and I almost quit cycling.
"Then I somehow believe that I can make it. When I look back and see where I come, I think it's a good inspiration to the young guys that everything is possible.
"I think I mentioned many times already that I had eating disorders quite bad. It was from one point to the other, and actually, I already finished my career. But then I went to Tirol [in 2013] and then almost already finished. Then one small team called Amplatz took me, and I started growing."
Tratnik said that he considers his career as having begun by signing with CCC seven years ago, such was the extent of his trouble beforehand, having turned pro with QuickStep just two years after taking up the sport.
"I think I started cycling at 18 years old, and after two years, I was already with QuickStep," he said. "But when I look back, I think I learned a lot. To be here now, to win this, I think I must be proud of myself.
"It gives me a lot of motivation, and I still think that age is not so much. I lost quite many years. I came back to CCC in 2017, so I can say that my professional career started in 2017.
"I think that in those years, I learnt a lot from the mental side and also yeah that cycling is just one part of the life. You also need to enjoy life because when you finish cycling, the life goes on."
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