From Beating Cancer to Wearing the Tour de France Yellow Jersey: The Remarkable Ride of Torstein Træen

Torstein Træen captured the maillot jaune at the Tour de France Tuesday, adding to the red leader’s jersey he wore for several stages in last year’s Vuelta a España.

But the Norwegian might not even be racing now had he not had an incredible stroke of luck back in 2022.

He was competing in that year’s Volta a Cataluña, placing ninth overall, and underwent a routine doping control at the race.

That test uncovered high levels of hCG, human chorionic gonadotropin, an indicator of certain kinds of cancer, which in turn led to a diagnosis of testicular cancer.

Træen had been feeling good — so good, in fact, that he won the mountains classification at the subsequent Tour of the Alps. But once the news of his test came through, he sought immediate treatment and ended up having his left testicle removed.

Fortunately the tumor was limited to that area alone. “So very small. We got there very early,” Træen told VG Sporten.

“A week later, all the HCG had disappeared from my blood.”

Testing and scans confirmed the cancer had not spread, meaning that chemotherapy was not necessary.

“I feel better and better every day,” he said then. “If I train for a month or two, I hope to be back in good shape.”

Træen was then part of the same Uno-X Mobility team he competes with today. In fact he turned pro with it prior to the 2020 season and, aside from two years with Bahrain Victorious, has been there his whole career.

He returned to racing in August of that year with its development squad, then did three stage races with the pro team to end out the season.

Those results were encouraging. Seventh in the Cro Race and third in the Tour de Langkawi confirmed he was on the right track, and also confirmed what a lucky break he had had.

Three breakthrough successes

Since then, Træen has had three really significant dates in his career.

He took an emotional win on stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse in 2024, a victory imbued with special meaning both because of his illness and recovery, and also because he dedicated it to Gino Mäder, who had died in a fall in the same race one year earlier.

“This win was for Gino,” said Træen then. “It means a lot to me to win here on the #rideforgino climb. We always miss him and ride for him.”

The second key date in his career came last August when he finished second on stage 6 of the Vuelta a España and jumped into the overall lead.

And the third came Tuesday, when the huge breakaway he was involved with gained sufficient time to make him race leader on the road and, by the finish, put him 7:52 ahead of former maillot jaune Tadej Pogačar.

American rider Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost) is his closest challenger, sitting 28 seconds back after the stage finish.

Træen is a solid climber and will hope to hang on in the days ahead.

“The Tour is the biggest race in the world and I will enjoy the jersey for as long as possible,” he said. “We’ll see day by day but I hope can keep it for quite some time now.”