Surprise win for Jan Tratnik in a chaotic Omloop Het Nieuwsblad finale: "When I saw Politt taking big turns, I started to believe"

Jan Tratnik, winner of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad! In the flash interview afterwards, the Slovenian couldn't quite believe that he suddenly got the chance to break away with Nils Politt in the absolute final stage. Thanks to the hard work of the German from UAE-Team Emirates, Tratnik didn't even have to sprint for it.

"I'm a bit surprised that I won today. We have a very strong team for the classics and I haven't ridden many of them in the past years. I also rode as a domestique. The team did well by being in the breakaway in the opening phase. I missed out a bit there, but that allowed me to relax with five teammates up front," analyzes Tratnik, who saw five teammates, Wout van Aert, Christophe Laporte, Matteo Jorgenson, Edoardo Affini, and Tiesj Benoot, in the breakaway group.

Tratnik speaks of 'greatest victory'

Everything seemed under control, but when Jorgenson broke away alone and didn't have the legs to hold on, the team had to go back to the drawing board. Tratnik turned out to be the key. "In the final phase, it was about keeping the faith. When the guys were reeled in, I went for the counter-attack and I won. I think this is probably the greatest victory of my life, because I was quite nervous about whether I could win the sprint. But I saw that Nils was taking big turns, then I started to believe in it."

That it still came to such a scenario was a surprise. Because the eventual leading group of six seemed strong enough to make it. However, Van Aert and Laporte had the guts to play poker and did not ride towards Jorgenson. In the peloton, however, according to Tratnik, there wasn't really a push either. "There wasn't really control in the peloton. I thought everyone was tired, but suddenly we came back. Then the race was completely open again."