Lennard Kämna was completely exhausted at the finish and a nasty wait began. Two minutes passed, four, six, eight, then finally the peloton around the overall leader Tadej Pogacar, who had taken it easy for long stretches of the day, came along. It pushed the last meters up to the finish in Megève, Pogacar himself competed again – and then Kämna’s big dream was burst in the narrowest possible way. If Pogacar had finished eleven seconds later, Kämna would have been in the yellow jersey after this moderately difficult tenth stage.
The tour isn’t even half over yet, but Lennard Kämna, 25 years old, born in Fischerhude and has been active for Team Bora since 2020, has already thoroughly exhausted the potential for drama. On the Vosges stage to the Planche des Belles Filles a few days ago, he was heading for victory until Pogacar flew past him on the steep gravel ramp 100 meters from the finish. And on Tuesday he managed to jump into a large breakaway group, which surprisingly got so far away that Kämna was eventually not only able to aim for the day’s win, but also the Maillot Jaune.
In between it got particularly wild because climate activists blocked the route and the tour direction briefly interrupted the race, but that was more to the advantage of the breakaways. And so on the 20-kilometer, but not too difficult, final climb, Kämna’s struggle to somehow finish the 8:43 minutes necessary for acquiring the yellow card in front of Pogacar. He had to give up the day’s win, which was then won by the Dane Magnus Cort Nielsen, and the lead over Pogacar was – 8:32 minutes. “I didn’t realize that in the mountain that I had such a great chance of getting the yellow jersey,” said Kämna at the finish: “I only realized that in the last three kilometers. Then I went full throttle. Eleven seconds I could have picked it up somewhere.”
It is remarkable at which level Kämna presents itself in this France loop. He has long been one of the outstanding talents in German cycling, strong in the mountains, strong in time trials. Two years ago he won a stage at the Tour and after that a lot was expected of him. Instead, he sometimes had to give his mind and body a longer break. It is these phases that cycling all too seldom grants to its young professionals. But Kämna did it noticeably well and this year he is particularly strong. He already trumped at the Giro when he won the stage on Mount Etna and wore the mountain jersey for a short time – and now he’s doing it again on the Tour.
Almost since the beginning of his professional career, Kämna has had to listen to the question of whether he doesn’t want to try it in the overall rankings. Everyone confirms that he basically has the potential to do so. But on the current loop, he should still be concentrating on stage wins and assisting his Russian Bora captain, Alexander Vlasov. But now that he’s second overall halfway through the race, priorities could shift again.