Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
The Bahrain-Merida team is looking in fine fettle as it gears up for cycling’s upcoming grand tours, with Jan Tratnik proving himself the most skilled rider on a technical course to take victory in the prologue stage at the Tour de Romandie.
The Slovenian overcame strong competition on the opening day in Switzerland, finishing a second ahead of defending champion Primož Roglič.
Tratnik took the leader’s jersey with Roglič, the best placed general classification contender in second, while reigning Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) came fifth at just four seconds down.
The triumphant Tratnik said: “It was really special, my first World Tour win and my first in a Bahrain-Merida jersey!”
“After a hard first part of the season with many races, I was quite tired, but also motivated ahead of this race because I knew that there were two time trials. I tried to focus at 100 per cent and I came here with the aim to do everything to take the win. I went on to take my first win and so I’m really happy”.
After securing the most prestigious accolade of his career to date, he added: “If someone asked me if I could win, I would have said that I will take some good results, but not the victory.
“I’ve surprised myself, but on this kind of course I was sure that I could take an important result. My goal was to give the maximum until the top of the climb and then it was downhill and flat to the finish.
“I improved in the time trial thanks to the team. We focused on the individual time trial heavily and also the best equipment that our partners supply us help a lot to achieve such results”.
The prologue of the Tour de Romandie packed in a hectic route over just 3.87km, with two hairpins, two 90-degree right turns, a sharp climb, a cobbled climb and a chicane.
Bike handling and power were essential in this opening test around the city of Neuchâtel in western Switzerland.
Newly-crowned Hour Record holder Victor Campenaerts was favourite for the stage, but the Lotto-Soudal rider crashed on a left-hand turn and finished well outside the provisional best times.
After Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) set an early marker of 5m11s, it was up to German national time trial champion Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma) to utilise his years of experience against the clock.
Martin delivered and took the lead with a time of 5m10s, but with his team-mates Jos van Emden, Primož Roglič and Steven Kruijswijk still to ride it looked like the race could pass to someone in the same strip.
Van Emden was unable to topple Martin as the number of contenders capable of the win began to dwindle.
But it was Swiss rider Tom Bohli (UAE Team Emirates) who put in a blistering ride to take three seconds out of Martin and top the leaderboard with a time of 5m7s.
Bohli was denied however as defending Romandie champion Roglič proved his consistent strength in a time trial, taking the hot seat with less than a second to spare.
However, Bahrain-Merida’s Slovenian diamond Tratnik took control and emerged victorious with a sparkling time of 5m6s.
Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas was the penultimate rider to set off, and he looked to be returning to form as he finished four seconds outside the time of Tratnik.
Kruijswijk was the last man to cross the line but was no threat to the top-10, securing victory for Tratnik.
The final stage took place on Sunday and Roglič gained revenge by securing the general classification title.
