"When you see your son and daughter crying, you tell yourself it would be better to die" - Lidl-Trek's Luca Guercilena opens up on cancer fight

Since all the way back in 2011, Luca Guercilena has been a key figure behind the scenes of the team now named Lidl-Trek. Over recent years however, the Italian has also been dealing with a battle away from the bike - one that nearly cost him his life.

In quotes collected by De Telegraaf, Guercilena recently reflected on his battles with cancer. “They discovered that I had lymphoma and I immediately started chemotherapy. At first it seemed to work, but when winter came, my immune system was compromised. First I got Covid-19, then I had pneumonia several times in a row," he recalls. "In the course of 2022, all kinds of other viruses were added. My organs were affected in every possible way, which meant that they no longer functioned, and I thought the end of my life was approaching.”

"It was hell. I kept losing weight and the doctors didn't know what to do anymore. At one point I weighed only 58 kilos," continues Lidl-Trek's general manager. "The treatment didn't work and I felt extremely bad. It was hard physically, but also mentally. For myself, but I was also busy with my wife and son of 21 and daughter of 26. You fight very hard for yourself, but you don't want to give up for them either."

Although Guercilena had plenty worth fighting for, at times he was almost overcome. “When doctors tell you that the treatment doesn’t work, the thought crosses your mind that it might be better to die," he admits. “You lie in bed with an oxygen mask, can’t do anything and realize that your life has no meaning anymore. At the same time, you see the people who love you suffering enormously. When you see your son and daughter crying with pain in their eyes, you tell yourself for the umpteenth time that it would be better to die. Then they too, without the burden they have from me, can pick up their own lives again.”

“I couldn’t even get out of bed. My liver stopped working, which made me all yellow," he adds. "And I also developed a bacterial infection in my stomach. At that point, I didn’t think I would make it to 2024, but I kept fighting. I spent 160 days in hospital with fear in my body. Would I survive or not? Until they adjusted my treatment plan and at some point it finally worked.”

And with that ray of light, the fight and the will to get better returned to Guercilena with force. “I worked from home a bit, because I was still often sick. But I still wanted to experience a cycling race at least once in my life. It was Milano-Sanremo last year. That cost me a lot of effort and after that race I had to stay in bed for the rest of the day, chained to my oxygen mask because I was having trouble breathing," he recalls. "That gave me the confidence to do everything I could to get stronger. The treatment did me good, and although I was still suffering a lot, I wanted to go to the Giro and the Tour. Step by step I felt a little better.”

"That does me a lot of good. You work with ambitious young people, who are working towards a goal. Everyone in the team has played a role in me feeling better. And success, like in this Giro d'Italia, also contributes to that. If I hadn't had the sport, I don't know how things would have turned out for me," he concludes. “For a long time I lived with fear and doubt, because this lymphatic cancer will never go away. Many people I met in the hospital are no longer here. I realize that very well, so I am glad that I persevered in the bad moments. I feel lucky to be able to tell this story.”