Jan Tratnik takes his skills to Crimson Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe in 2025, the place he’ll reunite with fellow Slovenian Primož Roglič. A two-year dedication at Visma-Lease a Bike was up on the finish of this yr, and the transfer to the German WorldTour squad will permit the veteran to proceed latest momentum for a seventeenth season.
“Possibly I am not the youngest, however I am actually glad to affix a staff with so many ambitions. I nonetheless have quite a lot of private targets, however I additionally need to share my expertise with the younger guys and assist the staff push the bounds in all areas,” Tratnik mentioned in a Crimson Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe press launch.
The 2024 season has been considered one of his most efficient since turning skilled as a 19-year-old, which began with second at Vuelta a Murcia, a pair of third locations at Clásica Jaén and Volta ao Algarve after which a victory at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. That Opening Weekend win into Ninove grew to become one his greatest conquests, in a set with a 2020 Giro d’Italia breakaway stage win in San Daniele del Friuli.
All through his profession Tratnik has confirmed to be a worthwhile domestique on varied terrain, having raced all of the Monuments and the three Grand Excursions. He has represented Slovenia at a number of World Championships and completed eighth within the Olympic highway race in Paris.
When Crimson Bull joined the Bora-Hansgrohe programme, they made a dedication to including younger expertise and key management to be able to make a direct affect on the WorldTour in 2024. A significant strike for the squad was buying Roglič from Visma, who introduced his huge expertise and palmares, and has now added a fourth Vuelta a España victory.
All through this season and headed into 2025, Crimson Bull has exhibited a revolving door of transfers and contract extensions, together with new signings of under-23 skills Giulio Pellizzari (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Staff Emirates), Laurence Pithie (Groupama-FDJ) and 24-year-old climber Oier Lazkano (Movistar). Tratnik’s signing is a stable reinforcement for the staff within the one-day Classics, in addition to a important endurance element for GC leaders in stage races.
“Expertise wants expertise. That is why it was necessary for us to signal somebody who has been within the peloton for a number of seasons. Jan is a main instance of a rider who’s each a staff participant and has the starvation and power to succeed on his personal,” Ralph Denk, CEO of Crimson Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe mentioned concerning the new signing.
Tratnik confronted various well being obstacles in his profession, most just lately having knee surgical procedure from which he rebounded in simply 4 weeks final yr. Early in his profession he battled an consuming dysfunction, which prompted him to drop from the WorldTour with Quickstep in 2011 and contemplate quitting the game. However he rebooted on the Continental stage at age 22 and started a trajectory again to the highest ranks, the place he has raced since 2019.
In July the early switch talks talked about Tratnik as a goal for the Crimson Bull staff. Earlier than he makes the transfer for 2025, the Slovenian is anticipated to line up at his eleventh World Championships when he competes within the elite males’s highway race on September 29.
