Back in 2012, Janez Brajkovič began his second stint at Astana with a bang, nabbing a stage win in the Volta a Catalunya and Top 10s in the Tour de Romandie and Critérium du Dauphiné before picking up an overall win in the Tour de Slovénie and then taking one the biggest results of his career, 9th overall in the Tour de France. It was a big year for the Slovenian all-rounder, 28 years old at the time, but in the two seasons that followed, Brajkovič spent more and more time playing a support role for the Kazakh outfit, as the likes of Vincenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru rose to the fore within the team.

At the end of the 2014 season, with his Astana contract expiring, Brajkovič found himself back on the open market, but he was not without a plan. Having spent a good part of his career riding for American teams, he was hoping to return to that familiar atmosphere, and, as it turned out, there was an American team looking to add a few major talents with high-level racing experience to its roster. Brajkovič signed a two-year deal with UnitedHealthcare in October, and with the agreement in place, the team suddenly found itself with a veteran GC rider for the stage races on its calendar, and Brajkovič suddenly found himself back in a leadership role. It didn’t take long for him to get comfortable with his new surroundings.

“I think I settled in already in December,” Brajkovič told VeloHuman. “It’s just the right fit for me. I get along with everybody. The way I think and others think are pretty much the same. We’re a good group of guys, and also the staff and the management, they’re so awesome. I feel really happy to be here. Happy to be here on this team, and I think this team will continue to grow, and I’ll be a part of this team growing, and hopefully in a year or two we’ll be on a higher level, racing ProTour, with the best teams in the world.”

Currently at the Pro Continental level, UnitedHealthcare made a concerted effort over the offseason to add firepower to the roster, bringing in Brajkovič as well as versatile Italians Marco Canola and Daniele Ratto, from Bardiani-CSF and Cannondale, respectively. For Brajkovič, the opportunity for a fresh start on a team with similar values was a major draw.

“I know for myself, last year in August, it was pretty clear I was not going to stay at Astana, and what I wanted was to sign for an American team. . . . Actually I wanted to sign with UnitedHealthcare, that was the team I thought would be the best for me, just to go back and start all over again, and I think it was a good choice, and I’m happy here,” Brajkovič said. “I’m happy to be racing again, and that’s one of the most important things for myself because even if you have good condition, coming to the race and being depressed is not going to get you results.”

An English-language environment played a significant role in giving Brajkovič an immediate morale boost after a few difficult years at Astana.

“Obviously in Astana there was a language barrier. And this American mentality suits me very well. Spending a lot of time in America is also something I like and so far it’s been great,” he said.

His preparation for the major goals of 2015 is coming around now, but the offseason wasn’t perfect for Brajkovič.

“Actually . . . it was a pretty hard offseason. The weather was pretty bad all the time [in Slovenia where he spent time in December]. Training hasn’t been as I would like it to be, but the training I’ve done, I’m pretty happy with the result. I know that there is a lot of reserves still, and once I start training seriously for Tour of California, and also I think Critérium [International] is a pretty important race for us, I think there’s going to be a lot of improvement as well,” he said.

Decent climbing results in the Tour de San Luis would suggest that his form is trending in the right direction, and Brajkovič is hoping that he’ll be closer to his peak by the time the aforementioned Critérium International and Tour of California arrive. The 2.HC events are major objectives for the American squad this season. Having brought on a few big European names over the winter, there was hope among the team that an invite to this year’s Giro d’Italia might be possible as well, but the race organizers opted to look elsewhere for wildcard invites. While it wasn’t an ideal turn of events, Brajkovič notes that UHC will have their hands full as it is.

“For UnitedHealthcare it’s pretty important to have a result in the Tour of California as well. And yeah, it would be nice to race the Giro but then for the Giro you have to have a team, and that would leave Tour of California with . . . I wouldn’t say bad riders, but probably not the best possible combination of riders, not the best team. So I think we just have to focus on Tour of California and race well there. I think that’s the goal for now, and hopefully we’ll get a Vuelta invitation,” he explained.

The USA Pro Challenge and the Tour of Utah are also in Brajkovič’s sights this season, though he is hoping to lead the team in Spain if a wildcard invite to the Vuelta is indeed in the cards, a possibility that will be more likely if the team can deliver results in stage races in the spring and early summer. For the one-week races in particular, podium performances are both the aim and also the expectation for Brajkovič. And although he has only one GC Top 10 result in his palmares over the last two seasons (he was 3rd in the 2014 Vuelta a Burgos), he remains confident that he still possesses the all-rounder skillset necessary to compete as a featured rider at the highest level in the major stage races on the UnitedHealthcare calendar.

“I still think—actually, I know—that I can race for GC, and that’s the focus. For me, and for the team as well,” he said.

After spending some time playing a support role with Astana, one might expect Brajkovič to feel a bit nervous about carrying the weight of his own and the team’s hopes for the season, but he isn’t showing any signs of that right now, with the positive outlook from joining a new, more comfortable environment taking some of the stress out of his return to the role of team GC leader.

“I don’t feel like a team leader,” Brajkovič said. “We’re like a bunch of guys who get along really well. And yeah, they help me a lot, and it’s amazing to see what they do for me, how much energy they spend for me, so I’m really grateful for that. And pretty soon, I think, we’ll start getting those results we need. But I don’t feel any pressure. Of course there’s expectations but I think if I stay healthy and everything goes to plan, we’ll have results as well, so there’s nothing to be worried about.”

-Dane Cash

Photo by Maximiliano Blanco.