13 Years ago, ski jumper Roglic outclassed Tratnik in training: now they are both at the start of the Giro

Therefore, it will be Tratnik's first start alongside Roglic in a grand tour. "It should have happened in 2023, but a car ran me down when training just before," he recalls in an interview with Cyclingnews. "So the first thing is to get to the start, okay," he laughs. The 35-year-old Slovenian left Visma | Lease a Bike after two years to join Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, where he is now a teammate of the former ski jumper.

The two have known each other for a long time. In 2012, Tratnik rode for the continental team Radenska, which competed in the Tour of Slovenia. Roglic wasn't even a real cyclist back then. "I remember the first training ride when Primož joined us. We did a recon of the Tour of Slovenia route and Primož still raced as an amateur amateur so he just joined us for that training ride. But it didn't end well because during the training ride, he dropped us all, so we all ended up asking, 'Who is this guy?'"

Roglic tells the other side of the story himself. The completely inexperienced cyclist felt out of his depth during the training ride. "They all looked like next-level professionals, the kind of guys I wanted to be. I just remember that year we did one training ride – I don't know if Jan was there, it was in February but it was still cold and I actually didn't know what to wear, or even how to sort out my bike properly," laughs Rogla. He pulled out all the stops—literally—to join the ride. "So I just put on all the clothes I possibly could, whatever I had, and then I went there. When I got there, I remember the guys maybe just had socks over their shoes and that was it, small things like that that looked really cool and professional. I put all of it on."

The four-time Vuelta winner experienced the training ride completely differently from Tratnik. "Then immediately when we started riding, I was already at the back, not allowed to do anything, just sitting at the back of the group. Fuck, I remember it was 30kph and I was exploding, thinking 'I can't hold this' and 'Why am I doing this? Maybe it's not such a good idea.'" Fortunately, he stuck with it, because the career that followed is incredibly impressive. Five victories in major tours, including a victory in the Giro d'Italia.

Now, Roglic wants to double his success in Italy. He is going all out for the pink jersey and creating fond memories of the race. But it is extra special that Tratnik will be there to support him. They have already been to training camp together in Tenerife. "It's the first of the Grand Tours, one of the biggest races of the year and doing it together with my friend and teammate is even nicer. So yeah, I'm just looking forward to the challenges to come."