"A lot of suffering, sweating, sacrificing" - Jan Tratnik describes brutal Tour de France and Olympic Games

Jan Tratnik has been a good part of Team Visma | Lease a Bike's plans for the Tour de France and has concluded the three weeks, after doing the same at the Giro d'Italia. Although he did not achieve the same results as Tadej Pogacar, he's done the same calendar and will fill in for the Slovenian national time-trial at the time-trial in the Olympic Games whist the Giro-Tour winner will take rest.

"Tour de France - no other race can compare. Still feel tired as f***, but those 3 weeks will stay in my memory forever," Tratnik wrote in an Instagram post. "To work with such a nice group of teammates & staff, make race much easier. I had wonderful time, a lot of suffering, sweating, sacrificing… but we came to Nice all together, happy & satisfied." Tratnik was part of the tactics for Jonas Vingegaard's attack on stage into Plateau de Beille, but mostly a support rider for the hilly days and the gravel stage that proved key to his second place in the final overall classification.

The 34-year old concluded his fifth Grand Tour and is quite tired, but his calendar has been extended with one more event following the Tour. "Thank you @teamvisma_leaseabike for those 3 weeks. Crazy season so far, with many race days, travel, training camps. Beach is waiting, but first, one more stop - Olympics. Hopefully in Saturday I will wake up".

Slovenia actually hold the Olympic time-trial title that was won by Primoz Roglic in Tokyo three years ago, but it is unrealistic to assume that Tratnik will be able to keep it in the nation's colours. Nevertheless, despite his fatigue, he could be an outsider for a Top10 result with no doubt taking into consideration the legs he's shown throughout the year. He will be a much very watched man in Paris.