Cancer survivor Torstein Traeen takes the long road to Tour yellow

PAU – Torstein Traeen has always taken the long route in his career. But at the age of 30 he finally wore the coveted Tour de France yellow jersey on July 8, four years after he was diagnosed with cancer.

The Norwegian found out about his testicular cancer only after he returned an adverse finding in a doping test at the 2022 Tour of Catalonia, where he had ended ninth.

That set him back a bit, but Traeen overcame that setback and a year after surgery he was back to his best, finishing eighth at the Criterium du Dauphine.

He took part in the Tour de France for the first time that year in 2023 and then two years later, he wore the leader’s red jersey at the Vuelta a Espana for four days.

Now he has the most prestigious jersey in cycling on his shoulders, ahead of Stage 6 on July 9.

“It’s obviously been a pleasure to be able to ride in the yellow jersey,” Traeen said after the 158.3km fifth stage from Lannemezan to Pau on July 8.

“When you get cancer you don’t know what will happen, so I’m obviously quite happy to be back at a good level and leading the biggest race of the world.

“All the boys said I looked really well, so it was nice to have compliments from the boys.”

It has taken a long time for Traeen to reach this stage.

In 2026, he is back at the Uno-X Mobility team where he started out as a junior, after a two-year hiatus at Bahrain Victorious.

He has been a part of the Uno-X story since the Norwegian team were founded a decade ago, before working their way up the cycling ladder and in 2026 becoming a UCI WorldTeam.

“I have followed him for more than 14 years and he has used the long way, always the long way... and step by step,” said his sporting director Stig Kristiansen.

“A couple of years ago he was eighth in the Dauphine. He had a setback with cancer, working his way back.

“So, it’s a lot of emotions going through him and also the team, because he was part of the first line-up when we were a development team.”

Traeen did not give away much about his emotions in his post-race interviews on July 7, when he first earned the yellow jersey, and July 8.

But Kristiansen did.

“He didn’t sleep as he normally sleeps,” said the sporting director.

“He did sleep, but you get excited, you get a lot of emotion and adrenaline.”

Traeen had it tough on his second day in yellow, losing contact with the lead group before the halfway point of the punishing Tourmalet climb with around 50km to go.

To make matters worse he crashed on the descent – his second spill in as many days.

Reigning champion Tadej Pogacar stamped his authority on the Tour, winning the mountainous sixth stage and reclaiming yellow.

Traeen managed to defend the red jersey at the Vuelta for four days before losing it to eventual winner Jonas Vingegaard, and went on to finish ninth.

“You saw in (the) Vuelta last year, he was defending the red jersey for a long time,” said Kristiansen.

“He was eighth in the Dauphine... and that was not because of a breakaway, he was following more or less the good climbers, the best climbers in the mountains.

“So, (he is) a gifted climber, not the class of Vingegaard-Pogacar, but one of the good climbers in the peloton, so normally he should last some days more – we hope.” AFP