The road into Foix rose one last time in the heat, and Torstein Træen held his place near the front. He crossed the line eighth. It was enough. Torstein Træen had taken the yellow jersey of the Tour de France.
Stage 4 ran 182.2 kilometres from Carcassonne to Foix on 7 July, the race's first day for the opportunists. Uno-X Mobility's rider knew the terrain suited a move and went with it early.
After around half an hour of racing, over 30 riders went up the road in separate groups and then united with a lead up front.
The temperature climbed past forty degrees. The break pressed its advantage while the peloton, led by neither UAE nor Visma, let the gap grow.
Lidl-Trek shaped the finish.
The team put in a stellar collective performance, controlling the race to launch Mads Pedersen to the stage victory in the Pyrenees.
Behind the win, another race was on.
The breakaway took nearly twelve minutes on Tadej Pogačar's yellow jersey group, and Træen was the best placed of the front group.
He did not gamble on the outcome.
"The possibility of wearing the yellow jersey was real," he said of the closing kilometres, careful not to celebrate before the finish line.
The numbers held. Træen leads the general classification by 28 seconds over Sean Quinn, with Mathias Vacek third at 3:53. Pogačar, the reigning champion, surrendered the jersey he had carried into the Pyrenees. Pedersen took the stage and the green points jersey, his third Tour stage win after 2022 and 2023.
"For sure, this was a masterpiece in teamwork," said the Dane. "I was suffering a lot on the last climb, but with Quinn and Vacek there, it was an incredible day."
The long way to yellow
Four years earlier, Træen was in treatment for testicular cancer, the disease detected during a doping control. He returned to racing four months after surgery. The setbacks did not end there.
Last year he suffered a five-week spell of concussion symptoms so severe he claimed it was tougher than his previous fight with cancer.
Foix marked how far the road had turned back in his favour.
The result carries weight beyond one rider.
Only three Norwegians have ever led the Tour de France. Træen's team boss, Thor Hushovd, is one of them.
The third, after Hushovd and Alexander Kristoff, is now Træen himself, riding for a squad built entirely from Norwegian and Danish riders.
"I'm very proud of Torstein and the whole team," Hushovd told reporters at the finish.
Four years from a hospital ward, a Norwegian pulled the yellow jersey over his shoulders. He did not celebrate early. He had learned to wait.
