fact file | portrait | fassa bortolo-survey

The beginning

Tadej was born in the small village Kranj, about 60 kilometers north of the slovene capital Ljubljana. As usual he visited school and later on he continued on high school. He says that he was a good student and his favorite subjects where...mathematics and physics! He finished school and left for Italy, against his mother's will. She wanted him to study but his father convinced him that it would be worth trying a pro rider's career.

Italy

Tadej's first contract was with the Slovene team "Sava Kranj". The team's trainer was, besides his family, the one who supported him the most on his way to a professional cyclist. In 1999 he left "Sava Kranj", went to Italy and joined the small Italian team "Record Cucine". The whole team lived like a family together in a nice flat in Caneva, next to a restaurent. Tadej said that there were not many things to do, since the town did not even had a cinema! In the same year, "Record Cucine" was invited to the "Baby Giro", one of the most important and prestigous race for young talents. The race was won already by well-known and successful riders like Pantani, Garzelli and Casagrande and in 1999, Tadej added his name to the list.

Fassa Bortolo

A young, non-italien guy winning one of the hardest race for young guns consequently attracts the attention of many team managers, among them Giancarlo Feretti. He was building up a completely new team for the season 2000 and was searching for new riders. Feretti visited the last stage of the "Baby Giro" in order to talk to Tadej. After that it was clear that Feretti wanted him in his team and Tadej was eager to join them.Together with Feretti he decided to specialize for mountains and stage races.He was completely new in the scene but after his very good fourth place in the Trofeo Laiguelia (Tadej's first pro race ever!) he was fully accepted within his team and the peloton. He comes along well with all members of Fassa since the atmosphere is very relaxed but he likes the most Matteo Tosatto and Ivan Basso.

Races

The main objectives are the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Tour de Suisse. He has all you need to be a successful climber: Small, thin, light and he preferes to ride in hot weather conditions. But unfortunately the big tours do not consist only of steep ascents but contain also time trails ... arguably a weak point of all excellent climbers. At the moment he is one of the younger riders and has to do a lot of work for the team leaders. During the Giro d'Italia 2001, his most important race so far, he was the "guard" of Dario Frigo, always by his side, ready to help him when nobody else was there. But then the big "razzia" came, an important mountain stage was canceled and Frigo was fired by the managers of Fassa due to the fact that he possessed some illegal drugs. The whole team was shocked, especially Tadej who admired him a lot and hopes that he will find his way back in.

When the race is finished, he goes back to the hotel, gets a massage and something to eat. He goes to his room, watches a bit tv and goes to sleep then. Mostly Tadej shares his room together with Basso, Konychev and Kirchen. In 2002 another Slovene rider is to join the Italians, Gorazd Stangelj. Tadej is quite happy about that so he does not feel so "lonely" among all these people that do not speak his mother tongue.

World Championship 2002

The Worlds in Portugal were said to be one of the hardest ones ever, with a difficult course. The Slovenes where officially allowed to have four riders in their national team so the coach choose Tadej and Gorazd Stangelj for the hills, Martin Derganc for an escape and Andrej Hauptman for a mass sprint. The race started quite slow and uninspired until the very last rounds. It became more and more clear that the future World Champion had to be a good sprinter so Tadej tried to escape with an italian rider in the last kilometers. However, in the end the bunch caught them again and the Spaniard Oscar Freire won the rainbow jersey in front of Paolo Bettini. But, and that was really surprising, Andrej Hauptman won the bronze medal! The whole team was happy and so were the Slovene fans that welcomed all four entusiastically back in Slovenia on Brnik Airport.

Family and Girlfriend

When Tadej is at home, he still lives with his family in a small village near Kranj. He has a brother that is four years younger than him, Jure. He likes cycling too but he favours winter sports. When Jure was still in school, he had a classmate that caught Tadej's eye and so she became his girlfriend. Mateja studies mathematics at the Universtity in Ljubljana and, as the most people around her boyfriend, she is a keen follower of cycling. When there are no races he is at home, trains and in the afternoon he spends his time with Mateja. Whenever it is possible, the family is present at the different competitions to support him.