At thirty years old, with only one victory in the top category - the fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse in 2024 - and a contract to secure before the end of the season since he hasn't signed with anyone at the moment, Torstein Traeen is experiencing the most intense hours of his competitive career.

A Norwegian from Honefoss, who grew up cycling with the Ringerike team, he joined the Uno-X Development Team in 2017, with which he raced for three years. Then he moved to the Proteam for four seasons and in 2024 joined Bahrain Victorious.

All while dealing with the most insidious of enemies: in May 2022, after a routine doping test, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

Forced to stop and face a delicate surgical procedure, he defeated the tumor, got back on the bike, returned to racing among Professionals, and earned a call-up for the Tour. And his "never give up" became an imperative to the point that when he suffered a microfracture to his elbow after falling in Bilbao during the first stage of the Tour de France, he refused to withdraw and finished that Tour.

And yesterday, as usual, he attacked, made the breakaway, lost the victory to Vine but wore an truly unexpected red jersey. "An definitely unexpected result. A few days ago, I was talking with my fellow countryman Johannes Staune-Mittet, and when he jokingly called me a loser, I responded, 'When I wear the Roja jersey after the Andorra stage, I don't think you'll ever call me a loser again!'" To be honest, it was quite difficult to get into the breakaway, the first 50 kilometers were tricky, and then I understood that something positive would happen at the end of the day. Armirail was fighting like me for the general classification, but I knew the final climb would be quite tough. Vine attacked on the descent and I gave my all: the last 5 kilometers were really long. I don't know how long I can resist, maybe today Vingegaard will get the jersey back: it's a possibility," he comments, laughing...