Torstein Traeen, the surprising leader of the Vuelta a España, has an impressive story of overcoming difficulties that began with him being labeled a cheater after being caught with a supposedly banned substance in an anti-doping test.

In May 2022, Torstein Traeen was in Sierra Nevada enjoying a hearty breakfast with his Uno-X Pro Cycling teammates. The date stayed with him. “It was Friday the 13th; we were joking that something bad was going to happen today,” recalls the 27-year-old Norwegian. Traeen remembers the exact moment when, as he was walking back to his room to prepare for the day’s ride, his phone rang. It was Knut Rønning, the team doctor. “He asked me if I had read the email in my inbox, and I said, ‘Yes, I had.’” But Traeen had overlooked it, not understanding the importance of the email. Rønning explained it clearly: “You tested positive for hCG from the Volta a Catalunya.”

The acronym “hCG” stands for human chorionic gonadotropin, a sex hormone that triggers critical processes during pregnancy in women, but is typically found only at very low levels in men. It is included on WADA’s list of prohibited substances for male athletes because hCG products stimulate testosterone production.

“I’m going to make sure you don’t die of cancer.”

Træen froze. The Friday the 13th breakfast joke wasn’t so funny anymore. “I was in shock,” says Træen. There were only two plausible explanations: either he had failed a doping test without explanation, or the results indicated a health problem. Rønning was still on the phone, but the rest of the conversation is now a blur in Træen’s memory. He only remembers Rønning’s firm instructions: “He told me I needed to go to the doctor immediately, and I asked him why. ‘You could be sick,’ he said. I told him I’d felt bad after Catalonia, but he said, ‘No, you could be very sick.'”

Rønning didn’t reveal at the time that he knew hCG could indicate testicular cancer, and only later learned that the cyclist had been experiencing mild pain in his testicles, which he played down because he “didn’t think it was a problem.” Now it was. Traeen booked the first available flight back to Stavanger, and less than 72 hours after Rønning’s call, he was sitting in front of his GP. “I was quite nervous,” he admits. “When we had the ultrasound and blood tests a few days later, nothing showed up. A second ultrasound was scheduled for two weeks later.”

That fortnight passed slowly, and as the pain in his testicles intensified, all parties involved strongly suspected that testicular cancer was indeed the cause of the elevated hCG levels in his blood. “It was hard waiting, not knowing what to do. I had to train, but I didn’t feel like it,” Traeen reflects. At his next ultrasound, the doctor’s discordant attitude left no doubt about the seriousness of the situation. “He said to me, ‘I’m going to make sure you don’t die of cancer,'” Træen recalls. “At that moment, I knew things were looking bad. I laughed because I didn’t know what else to say.”

Just a few weeks earlier, Træen had been enjoying some of his best performances yet: ninth place overall at the Volta a Catalunya and the Order of Merit jersey at the Tour of the Alps. Now he was going all out to focus on the extremely high survival rates for testicular cancer, with around 90% of men treated for the disease surviving at least 10 years after diagnosis. “I was pretty sure everything would be fine,” says Træen. “The word ‘cancer’ is very scary, but all I could think about was cycling and getting back.”

One testicle was removed and cancer was confirmed.

For the next six weeks, his only constant was blood tests, and staying focused on training was difficult, especially when his girlfriend Susanne Andersen, who also rides for Uno-X, was away competing in the RideLondon Classique. “I was left alone for a few weeks,” says Træen. “I would order takeout almost every day. I could go three days without training, and then I would train the next four days. It was like being in the off-season: I wasn’t doing much, but I was eating a lot. Day-to-day life was tough.”

Finally, the tests yielded a strategy. “The surgeon said she wanted to remove my left testicle,” says Træen. “They weren’t sure it was cancerous yet, but they wouldn’t know until they removed it and looked inside.” Træen took a pragmatic stance. “Losing a testicle isn’t so bad,” he says, but then admits that he had to confront the risk to his fertility. “I had a lot of things to do during my later life. They told me everything would be fine afterward and that I would function normally, but that I had to go to a sperm bank, just in case.”

On June 23, 41 days after the Friday the 13th call he’ll never forget, Traeen underwent surgery. And thank God he did. On July 5, he received a call from the hospital. “When they removed my left testicle, they found a 15mm cancerous tumor inside it,” he reveals. There was no evidence that the cancer had spread; he was cancer-free. On Instagram, Træen posted: “I have 99 problems, but cancer is not one of them anymore.”

Did the drug test save his life? “I’m not sure,” he says, “but it definitely saved me from chemotherapy, and for that I feel very lucky.” Traeen believes that the day he urinated in a urinal in northern Spain, the cancer was in its early stages. “Two weeks before Catalonia, I was tested at the Norwegian Anti-Doping Agency and they found no traces of hCG,” he explains, “so we caught it early, which means I didn’t need chemotherapy or complicated surgery.”

“This hurts so much”

What was it like returning to training after surgery? “On the first ride, I thought, ‘Fuck, this hurts so much!’ A more padded saddle helped ease the agony. “I can now ride for six hours without pain,” says Traeen. “It’s still an issue on the time trial bike, but we’ll figure it out.”

After a gradual return to training, on August 18, just four months after winning the mountains classification at the Tour of the Alps, he started the Baltic Chain Tour alongside five of his team’s development riders. “It was strange being back, but I was very happy,” he smiled.

Two weeks later, he finished third at the Lillehammer GP; in October, he finished seventh overall at the Cro Race, and then third at the Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia. It was a remarkable return to form. “The team was surprised by my good performance in Croatia, because the course there was more dynamic. I was happy to be there, to compete in the final,” he recalls.

Three years later, he’s feeling stronger and his competitive level is increasing. What consequences has his terrible experience left him? “Now, if I have a bad day, I realize it’s not that bad. It’s definitely changed me. I’m grateful to be able to do what I love, because I discovered that cycling, like life, can be easily taken away from you.”