San Francisco Frontiers - Cancer survivor Traeen takes the long road to Tour yellow

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

"It's obviously been a pleasure to be able to ride in the yellow jersey," Traeen said after Wednesday's 158km fifth stage from Lannemezan to Pau.

"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."

And he added: "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.

He is back this year 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 was founded a decade ago before working its way up the cycling ladder and this year becoming a World Tour team.

"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 Tuesday, when he first earned the yellow jersey, and Wednesday.

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."

- 'Everything can happen' -

Holding onto the yellow jersey was not particularly taxing on Wednesday's sprint stage, despite a late crash, but Uno-X face a much tougher challenge on Thursday's mountainous run through the Pyrenees.

The biggest threat comes from reigning champion Tadej Pogacar, who is close to eight minutes off the lead.

There are a couple of monstrous climbs on stage six: the Col d'Aspin and the Col du Tourmalet.

"In normal circumstances, with that profile, Pogacar goes all out on Tourmalet, or whatever he does, there will be gaps," said Kristiansen.

"He (Traeen) has eight minutes, so in a normal circumstance he should be able to defend it tomorrow."

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."

Traeen himself was giving little away.

"We didn't have a lot of real mountain climbing yet, so we don't know what will happen," he said.

"With this heat, everything can happen, so you just have to hope and do your best."

V.Mitchell--SFF