Tratnik wins the Volta Limburg Classic

Jan Tratnik (CCC Sprandi) dug deep to win the Volta Limburg Classic in the Netherlands, winning a small group sprint after being caught in the final kilometres of the race.

Tratnik won the final time trial stage at the recent Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in Italy and used his speed and pace in the rain-soaked finale.

He was away with Oscar Riesebeek (Roompot - Nederlandse Loterij) in the rolling finale. However after Tratnik put his foot out to avoid crashing on a curve, Riesebeek had no where to go and flipped over a gate.

Tratnik pushed on alone, was caught by the chasers but still won. Marco Tizza (NippoVini Fantini-Europa Ovini) and Jimmy Janssens (Cibel-Cebon) finishing one second in arrears to the Slovenian to round out the podium.

"I'd had big plans for this race. Last year luck was not on my side and this time everything went perfectly. I’d had everything planned out before the race and with 70km to go I decided to start executing it. I did not feel great after I joined the breakaway, but we kept pushing high watts and I saw that everybody was tired. In the end I almost crashed, as I rode off the road. I had to chase the group, but still managed to take the win. It was a perfect day," said Tratnik.

"After winning TT at Coppi e Bartali is my second consecutive win, which is a very nice feeling to win back-to-back. I want to thank the team, which protected me in the bunch, was working at the head of the group to reduce the gap and also helped me position myself for the attack."

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