'Maybe I'll go on the attack 150km from the line' - Jan Tratnik takes aim at second Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

Before last year's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Jan Tratnik was a dark horse for victory at best given he'd only ever finished 94th in his one previous participation. This time round if he breaks away again on the final stretch in Ninove for another win, whether it's in a duel like last year or a solo run for victory, it'll be anything but a surprise.

It's not just that the 35-year-old Slovenian will be racing with the number one on his back next Saturday, making it much harder for him to fly under the radar, but Tratnik is also hardly keeping it a secret that his performance data 'numbers' in racing are even better than they were at this point in 2024. 

Clearly, he's a man to watch during Saturday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

"I'm feeling better than last year though the results are not the same," Tratnik told a small group of media, including Cyclingnews, during the recent Volta ao Algarve.

"Ok, Bessèges was a bit of a chaotic race and I couldn't really test myself there. But already on the stage 2 summit finish here, I saw that I pushed higher numbers than last year."

"Here in the Algarve, too, I'm coming in with a different approach because we have Primoz Roglič. But we are on the right track, I'm on the right track, the team is on the right track. So I'm happy with these numbers and with my performance."

Last year Tratnik's results showed superb consistency in the countdown to Omloop: he claimed third in the Clásica Jaén and he also had a second place in his season-opener, the GP Murcia, and a third place overall in the Volta ao Algarve to boost his confidence for Opening Weekend. 

This time he has both the numbers from racing and something else arguably equally important to keep his motivation high as Saturday approaches: his Omloop victory from 2024.

Tratnik won a two-up sprint against new teammate Nils Politt after attacking late in a tactical team play that worked perfectly for Visma-Lease a Bike but ended with Tratnik taking the glory ahead of team leader Wout van Aert.

New to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe in 2025, Tratnik's experience means he knows that in the Classics it's unwise to bank everything on one contender, though, and he'd be happy if his teammates also have their chance to show their strength.

The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe line-up for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is expected to include fellow team leader and ever aggressive Oier Lazkano, Roger Adrià, Jonas Koch, Jordi Meeus and twins Mick and Tim van Dijke.

Their major rivals include Van Aert, Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep), António Morgado (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) and Tom Pidcock (Q36.5).

"We have quite a strong team with young guns, and you know how it goes with those races, it's quite hard to say it's only going to be with one leader, because so many scenarios can play out. You need to have more bullets in the pocket to play well," he explains.

"I'm a rider who likes to share leadership with the others too and it's a race where we want to play more cards. It doesn't matter which rider is the best. It's important that we try to win as a team, not as an individual."

I'm good on every kind of terrain

Tratnik's victories over the years have come in a very broad range of scenarios, from a breakaway stage win in the Giro d'Italia in 2020 to stages in the Tour de Romandie, the Limburg Classic in Holland and the overall of the Tour de Slovakia a few years before.

That broad-ranging talent played its part in the 2024 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the first cobbled Classic of the season, where everybody is still unsure of the form and it is also very much a reflection of how Tratnik likes to race.

"For me, it's a different race plan every year," Tratnik points out.

"Maybe I'll be doing the cobbles, or two Grand Tours" – like in 2025 – "but each time the cobbled Classics are a little bit less on my programme."

"Finally, though, it doesn't matter where I go or what I do: I'm good on every kind of terrain and the team can use me if it's hilly or the cobbled Classics or whatever."

Tratnik does have a special affinity with Belgium though, and not just because of cycling. He's a fan of car rally racing as well and last year Belgian Thierry Neuville became the latest World Rally Championship winner and the first for Belgium in the series history.

As Tratnik recounts with a grin, "I took a rest day and I went hiking to watch the Col de Turini in the WRC rally in Monaco" – which Neuville won – "so that day the rally was more important than training."

Hungry to race

Back in his own more familiar terrain of bike racing, one key change between 2023 and 2024 for Tratnik in his personal countdown to Omloop was that the Belgian Classic marked his season debut in 2023. Last year he raced for seven days before his major victory.  

Rather than any sophisticated masterplan, the change of schedule was due to something as elemental as being hungry to race

"In 2023 I did training at altitude but this period from October till March is quite long. It's not that I was bored, but I was missing racing," he explains.

"It's nice to start a bit earlier, to get the feel of the peloton and to race a little bit, to get the race kilometres in the legs.

"In any case, I'm going to need to do a lot of altitude anyway. So it's better to train hard first at home, test myself in the races and then you still can do extra preparation if you need it."

So while he repeated his racing countdown to Omloop via the Algarve this year, there's one big change for 2025 that he couldn't avoid, he is no longer with Visma-Lease a Bike. He has followed fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglič to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.  

Rather than having Wout Van Aert as a teammate, the Belgian is now a rival. 

Tratnik combines humour with a very pragmatic approach to that switchover, saying "yeah, the good thing about that is that now if I'm on the front, I can just follow him and I will be in a winning position." 

Whether Tratnik can actually do that, or not, will only become clear on Saturday. After finishing the Volta ao Algarve there are only a couple more pieces in the pre-race puzzle left to put into place.

"I'll do the last 80 kilometres of the race as a recon on Friday, and then it's enough. I know the route already, in any case, but what can really change from one year to the next is the weather. Hopefully it'll be sunny and there won't be any snow."

Such questions remain out of his control, of course, but it's impossible to avoid the sense that at 35, Tratnik actually enjoys the unpredictability of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. The variety of the early-season Classic is what keeps him on his toes. 

He certainly seems to be keen to keep any scenario for Saturday on the table right now, even a long-distance attack that fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogačar has made his inhouse speciality in recent years.

"It's what happens in the race that matters the most, because these days you never know what can happen. Maybe I'll go on the attack 150 kilometres from the line," he says, ending the interview with another smile.