Jan Tratnik: "Eating disorders in sports, including cycling, are certainly still present"

Jan Tratnik has joined Team Visma | Lease a Bike last year and has definitely taken a leap. His start of the 2024 season is one of tremendous spectacle and his Omloop Het Nieuwsblad win is already a career highlight. He admits that part of his improvement comes from having overcome an eating disorder.

“Many people have asked me if I ever think about what used to happen to me. My eating disorder problems lasted for three to four years. Today, I have no problem with it, nor am I afraid to talk about it," Tratnik told Siol.net. "Eating disorders in sports, including cycling, are certainly still present. I think I can help a lot of people just by talking openly about it... I notice that there are a lot of young people today who just want to have a contract, and when they fail for the first time, they give up immediately.”

He's advised young riders into paying attention to this and believes that these issues have not slowed down, mainly among riders who actively need to find contracts to remain in the professional cycling world. The 34-year old has words of experience to the emerging generations on persistency - the Slovenian being a good case for it, currently showing his best level ever on the bike. “Last year I fell in the Giro and broke my knee. They told me my season was over. But two days later I started working again. After four weeks I was back on the bike," he shares.

"I still made it to the Vuelta. Don't stress and believe everything is possible: that is my motto. The only condition is that the person who has to do it believes in himself. Ultimately, I learned a lot from those difficulties. If you win the Omloop het Nieuwsblad like today, then I should not only be proud of myself, but this also gives me motivation for the future. I am 34 years old, but age doesn't mean much.”