🎥 Jan Tratnik (101st) responds to his leisurely prologue performance in Romandie

The Tour de Romandie kicked off on Tuesday with a prologue. At just 3.2 kilometres, it was anything but a long effort — yet not every rider went flat out. Jan Tratnik was one who took it easy, and the Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe rider has now explained his rather casual performance.

Tratnik was the second-to-last rider down the ramp. From the very first second, it was clear he was not going to trouble Dorian Godon's time — who at that point was sitting in the hot seat and would ultimately win the stage. The Slovenian set off on a standard road bike and put minimal power through the pedals from the start.

The footage made for remarkable viewing. All afternoon, virtually every other rider had given everything in the effort of just over three and a half minutes. Tratnik simply did not — and the French Eurosport commentary team were visibly baffled. "Oh la la. Tratnik is not going full gas. Hahaha. He doesn't care at all. I've never seen this before," the commentators laughed.

Despite cruising through the prologue, Tratnik did not actually come last. The Red Bull rider finished 101st of the 103 starters, more than a minute behind winner Godon — averaging just over 40 kilometres per hour.

On Instagram, Tratnik provided his explanation. "I'm lucky I could even race at all. Sharp pain in my lower back is not great to have at the start of a stage race. But we're not giving up. Let's take it day by day," he said.

Despite Tratnik's struggles, Red Bull Bora-hansgrohe can be satisfied with a good day at the Tour de Romandie prologue. After the the 3.2km time trial, they had 3 riders sitting in the top ten: Primoz Roglic (8th), Finn Fisher-Black (9th), and Florian Lipoowitz (10th), all wihtin 8 seconds of race leader Dorian Godon.

Adrien Boichis gave the Austrian-German team another reason to smile. The 23-year-old French rider finished 14th in his first WorldTour stage race. Boichis gave a small recap after the race via the team's Instagram story: "It was good. I has a small injury last month, so I'm super happy to be back. We have a super good team and I'm super happy to be here. I really hope to have a good week with the team."