“I am not doing Grand Tours anymore, but I am still a bike racer" - Not even incurable cancer will stop Serghei Tvetcov competing in the peloton

For many years Serghei Tvetcov has spent his professional career riding in the peloton and competing at a very high level. In September 2022 however, his world was rocked by a diagnosis of incurable blood cancer.

“You think you are healthy, an athlete, and you never get anything, and then the doctor tells you you have cancer,” the 34-year-old, three-time Romanian national road race champion explained in an interview Velo. “That’s a shock.”

“It was my low power numbers that revealed something was wrong,” Tvetcov explains. “I was lucky. Sometimes with cancer, you do not realize something is wrong until it is too late. Because I am an elite athlete, I could tell my body was off right away.”

In the end, doctors found it to be a rare form of blood cancer called Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. Although it may be rare, Tvetcov isn't the only cycling name currently battling this disease, former Tour de France winner Greg Lemond also suffering the same form of cancer. “I was diagnosed with cancer in September 2022. It was a shock, not just for me but for my entire family,” recalls Tvetcov. “It’s not possible to cure chronic leukaemia, but treatment can control it. I am still on meds.”

Throughout the whole ordeal though, Tvetcov has remained steadfast in his determination to continue racing. “I am not doing grand tours anymore, but I am still a bike racer, and I am still competitive. I won the national title of Romania this year. That was a very emotional victory for me,” he explains. 

“I want to do a project in gravel racing and I want to spread the word. The earlier you can check the better. It’s like a snowball effect. First you’re healthy, and then you can know if something is wrong. I want to spread the word you can do it," a message we at CyclingUpToDate wholeheartedly reiterate. “The main idea of the project is to send a message and inspire people with the same or similar diseases through cycling, both for them and their families.”