Jan Tratnik reveals history of anorexia and bulimia: "It was a circle I couldn’t escape from"
Cycling
Jan Tratnik is one of the top riders in the peloton currently, a great domestique but also very successful rider with his own results. This is the result of a very long career however and he admits that in his first years he suffered from eating disorders and was close to leaving the sport.
It was a very interesting start to his career, two years in continental teams, then one year at Quick-Step, then another five back at continental level. Likely in the 2010 or 2011 seasons, with the Radenska or even Quick-Step, he admits that he entered a cycle of vicious eating disorders.
“We did some tests and when we saw my watts per kilo, someone suggested that if I lost another two kilograms I could be really, really good on the climbs, so I listened to them,” the Slovenian said in words to CyclingWeekly. “The truth was, I didn’t have much fat so it was really hard to lose this weight. That’s how it started, because I didn’t know what to do.”
It is a still existing problem in cycling nowadays, but more so in this dark period of cycling right after decades of doping scandals as well. Specially for those who wanted to perform well uphill, there would be a pursuit of weight loss to extreme levels, including the lack of nutrition - something unthinkable in the sport currently.
“I reduced my eating to almost nothing to lose those extra two kilos, but it was really hard because I was losing muscle," he says. "I was hungry all the time, I was starving. I was eating maybe one or two meals per day, but only small amounts.”
The lack of eating also led to occasional overeating, and then forcing himself to throw up so as to not gain weight from it. “I couldn’t handle being starving, so I cracked and ate too much. Being afraid to gain weight... It was a circle I couldn’t escape from.”
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- How many times have you looked at the perfect form of an athlete and marvelled at how easy that athlete makes it look when goes to work in his chosen sport? I marvel at Vanderpoel, Van aert, Pogacar and many many more. Cian is no different. He admires what those athletes do and it motivates him to be similar or better!1stpastthepost16-01-2025
- Why would he even mention Roglic? He can get 0 information from him and can't see how he's working and behaving. Makes 0 sensevappaxbipmv16-01-2025
- It might help to read it again. All Cian in that part is indicating is that he admires Roglic and Vingegegaard. This exact quote from the piece is really all you need to understand his thinking. "With Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard I have two great examples,"roadman5412116-01-2025
- That part isn't in quotation marks so the author came up with that. Second, Roglic winning at Visma doesn't help Cian at all, just because it's the same team. Froome also won the Tour riding for Sky and Ineos but that doesn't mean that the current riders there can help me (apart from G)vappaxbipmv16-01-2025
- Firstly, as far as I read it, the article only reports what Cisn said so the writer can’t be blamed for that. Secondly Cian rides for Visma, Jonas won and rides for Visma, Primoz rode and won for Visma, all he’s saying is he wants to follow by winning for Visma and he obviously feels it’s the right place for him to achieve it. Really don’t see much to get confused about, it’s a lot simpler and clearer than most of what I post, which incidentally isn’t intended for everyone, take what you will, ignore the rest is a good motto.Mistermaumau16-01-2025
- It's been like shooting fish in a barrel for the Portuguese anti-doping authority.
santiagobenites16-01-2025 - Then the article is stupid for talking about Visma's leaders in GTsvappaxbipmv15-01-2025
- Pain and death have long been distorted since the advent of mass gaming. Death is also a very ambiguous paradoxical topic religiously. I get that people get upset but when you pull your head out the sand and see what really goes on in the world, everywhere, anywhere at any time at every level, when you see certain ideologies, when you see what people do to each other, to kids for the sake of causes, emotions, perversion, kicks or money, the torture done by states, enemies, authorities or just sick individuals, this guy is not even a 6 on a scale of 10. To turn this into drama is like governments fighting plastic pollution with bans on single use straws. Please, these cases get treated, let’s focus more energy on the far worse ones that don’t. The last thing the world needs now is an army of Elons cherry picking examples of evil to hide the bigger picture. Flattening molehills on a mountain.Mistermaumau15-01-2025
- He’s just saying he wants to follow in the footsteps of someone like Roglic or Jonas, I doubt teams, races or exchanges have anything to do with his thinking.Mistermaumau15-01-2025
- He spent 0 races alongside Roglic, I don't understand what he's talking aboutvappaxbipmv15-01-2025