When Uno-X Mobility were awarded a Tour de France wildcard for the 2023 edition, the news was greeted with shock and joy. Jens Haugland, the team’s then manager, said he “just started screaming” when he found out. He then made a vow: “We’re not going to be defensive – we’re going to be very positive and attacking in our racing.”
Four years on, the Norwegian team (with a few Danish riders along for the ride) have not only come good on Haugland’s words, but fully established themselves as Tour de France regulars, and winners.
The first year was all about being seen, and the team did that, recording 11 top-10s. Invited back again in 2024, Jonas Abrahamsen went in more breakaways than gruppettos, before the same man returned 12 months later and pulled off a gutsy stage win just four weeks after breaking his collarbone.
Now the team in red has swapped its colours for yellow.
On stage four of the 2026 Tour, Torstein Træen, cancer survivor and leader of last year’s Vuelta a España for four days, was one of 34 riders to go up the road in the first big breakaway of the race. The group was whittled down to 11 towards the finale and with Lidl-Trek counting three riders in it, it was inevitable that Lidl-Trek’s Mads Pedersen would win the sprint finish.
Træen and American Sean Quinn of EF Education-EasyPost were the only riders in with a chance of taking the race lead off Tadej Pogačar, who was happy to hand it over. Træen was five minutes and six seconds adrift of the defending champion, and Quinn was 28 seconds further back. The gap between them and the peloton was around three minutes for most of the stage, but then in the final 80km it stretched further and further out. Træen had time to prepare for the biggest moment of his life: he would be in yellow, the leader of the Tour de France.
“What can I say? I’m always happy to perform at the Tour, the biggest race in the world, and most of all I’m grateful that the team selected me,” he said, resplendent in the world’s most coveted cycling jersey.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
In the previous two seasons, Træen raced for Bahrain-Victorious, leaving the team that had developed him. He did well at Bahrain – that Vuelta lead, of course, plus a stage win at the Tour de Suisse – but the grass isn’t always greener. Træen feels at home at Uno-X and recognised that they are now deserved Tour de France regulars.
They received wildcards for the past three years, but now they’re automatically invited as one of the 18 WorldTour teams after being promoted from the second division. Far more established teams like Groupama-FDJ United, Movistar and Picnic PostNL have done less than Uno-X in the Tour since 2023. Often much less. Their participation is no fluke.
“To be honest, it’s the same team as before – the people are the same, and how everyone is working is the same,” Træen said.
“I knew how they were working, and with Thor Hushovd coming in [as team manager in 2024] it was really exciting. They are all still my friends and I still spoke to them even when I wasn’t on the team. It was always a dream to come back and be with them, and, [after] seeing how they were performing last Tour, it’s just a pleasure to be here.”
Hushovd, who was the first Norwegian to lead the Tour de France all the way back in 2004, summarised the scale of the achievement for a team that imposes its own self-limitations all in the name of developing homegrown talent.
“It’s a big moment for us,” said Hushovd, the 2010 world champion. “We have a different project to others. We are a Scandinavian team with a Scandinavian identity, with riders only from Norway and Denmark.
“It makes the road more complicated because we cannot pick and choose riders from different countries, and we also have less budget, but if you do a good job and do things properly, then we stand here today and lead the Tour de France.”
Given the parcours in the forthcoming week, coupled with Træen’s 7:53 advantage to Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, it’s very feasible that the Norwegian will be in yellow for quite a while – possibly until the final week, when the Vosges mountains are followed by a lumpy time trial and then the Alps. Træen could lead the race for more days than anyone else in this Tour.
Meanwhile his teammate Tobias Halland Johannessen will likely be accompanying him in the GC top-10, as the Uno-X aim for another high placing. “He was sixth last year and we will try to do better this year,” Hushovd said. “We think we’re in a good position and leading the Tour de France gives more motivation to the group.”
A lot of teams handed wildcard entries to the world’s biggest bike race don’t do much beyond appearing in breakaways. There’s nothing wrong with that – they have smaller squads and smaller budgets compared to the heavyweights, and a doomed day out front is often the best way of ensuring visibility.
But just like they have done in a number of areas, Uno-X have done things differently. They used their debut Tour in 2023 as a stepping stone to greater things. Træen gaining yellow in 40-degree heat in Foix further cemented their reputation as Tour mainstays.
“Leading the Tour de France is already a success,” Hushovd added, “but we know we want much more.”
