“I wrote to my coach” - Remco Evenepoel’s Tour road captain asks Red Bull to send him to his home Giro d’Italia
Cycling
Jan Tratnik has asked Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe for a place at the 2027 Giro d’Italia after seeing the route for the race’s first stage entirely on Slovenian roads. The 36-year-old is a Giro stage winner and has twice raced through Slovenia at the Corsa Rosa. Last July, he was road captain for Remco Evenepoel on his way to second overall at the Tour de France.
“I wrote to my coach and told him that, if there was a chance, I’d really like to ride the Giro,” Tratnik said on Val 202’s Tour 202 podcast. “I also said I understood that I have my own wishes and I know I’m hardly a team leader. The team and its leaders have their own plans, and they’ll decide who they want in the squad and at which races.”
Why Evenepoel could have a say in Tratnik’s Tour selection
Red Bull took Tratnik to the Tour to handle pacing, positioning and communication for Evenepoel and fellow leader Florian Lipowitz. The Slovenian had already raced alongside Evenepoel at the Tour of Flanders and in the Ardennes, and they shared a race programme again in Canada in September.
“We have a very good relationship. We talk a lot and I’m sure Remco has a say,” Tratnik said. “He’ll have even more of a say next season when he’s choosing which riders he wants.”
Evenepoel finished second behind Tadej Pogacar in Paris, and next year’s Tour has 71 km of individual time trials. Tratnik has done the Giro and Tour in the same season before, finishing both for Team Visma | Lease a Bike in 2024. For now, the two races are possibilities on his calendar.
“Now we know what next year’s Giro looks like, and I definitely want to ride it,” he said. “If the team tells me I have to go to the Tour, I’ll go to the Tour. I’ll accept that and be absolutely fine with it.”
Remco Evenepoel and Jan Tratnik on stage 8 of the 2026 Tour de France
Tratnik’s form after an injury-hit first year at Red Bull
Tratnik needed three months of rehabilitation after a crash at the 2025 Giro aggravated an old knee injury. This year he finished the Tour and raced for Slovenia at both the World and European Championships. He went winless, two years after beating Nils Politt at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, but still took his chance to get up the road on Stage 4 of the Tour, leading over the Col de Coudons before finishing 26th in Foix.
“I’d say 2026 was one of my most consistent seasons,” he said. “From my first race in February through to the European Championships, I don’t think I had many ups and downs. I always did the job I was given.”
He traces part of that progress back to his two seasons at Visma. “I did my training and everything the team asked of me,” Tratnik said. “I think that’s where I made that step forward and really found the best version of myself. I worked out what was right for me, what suited me, and what kind of training and nutrition worked for me.”
Tratnik said he has more freedom in his training at Red Bull, where his contract runs through the end of 2028. “There were days when I hit some of my best five- and ten-minute power numbers,” he said of his 2026 season. “So even though I’m getting older, I can still hold that level. As long as I can keep doing that, I’ll be happy.”
His freedom to chase results has narrowed. “I know now that I’m a domestique and that I no longer get opportunities to ride for my own result. I’ve come to accept that,” he said. “The team puts a lot of trust in me, and you could see that in the races they picked me for. I got to ride some of the biggest races on the calendar.”
Read also
A Giro homecoming for Tratnik and the fans from Idrija
The 2027 Giro route crosses briefly into Slovenia on its opening stage from Trieste. The next day, 9 May, the race spends all 166 km of Stage 2 in the country, from Ljubljana to Koper on the Adriatic coast.
The stage bypasses Idrija, but Tratnik’s supporters have travelled to see him before. In 2021 they lined the roads in the Goriska Brda hills before the race crossed back into Italy to finish in Gorizia. Four years later, they were out again when the Giro finished on the Slovenian side of the border in Nova Gorica. Tratnik was there in Red Bull colours, riding in support of Primoz Roglic.
Two of Tratnik’s best days in six Giro starts came just across that border. He won at San Daniele del Friuli in 2020, attacking again on the final climb after Ben O’Connor caught him. The day before the Giro’s 2021 visit to Slovenia, he finished second to Lorenzo Fortunato on Monte Zoncolan. If Red Bull gives him a start next May, he’ll have a home stage on the opening weekend and a return to the Zoncolan on the penultimate day.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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