In the last few kilometers, the big calculations begin, at the finish of the 10th stage of the Tour de France, Lennard Kämna has to wait nine long minutes. Then the previous overall leader Tadej Pogacar reaches the goal – and it becomes clear that Kämna is only a touch away from first place and the yellow jersey.
Exhausted, Lennard Kämna got off his bike, then looked anxiously down the runway at Megeve Airport. The decisive question in the final act of the drama: where is Tadej Pogacar? Is it enough to conquer the yellow jersey? The sobering answer: No! Kämna was eleven seconds short of slipping into the maillot jaune as the 15th German professional cyclist.
In any case, Kämna quickly had the reasons for the missed yellow coup and the clearly missed second tour stage win of his career in tenth place. “It just didn’t work at all. Today I had the feeling that everyone was driving against me in the top group,” said the Bora-hansgrohe professional, who climbed to second place overall, on ARD: “It’s really no fun made the last hill. I ended up riding everything I had.”
His sports director Torsten Schmidt was still very satisfied with his protégé despite the missed surprise coup: “The goal was to win the stage with Lenny. But when the gap was so big, we had the chance to get yellow. It’s a shame that it didn’t quite work out.”
However, one jersey remains in German hands: At the same time, compatriot Simon Geschke defended the mountain jersey he conquered on Sunday over the 148.1 kilometers. Defending champion Pogacar still has a lot to worry about despite the narrowly defended overall lead after the second corona case, which became known in his UAE team before the stage. The day’s victory went to the Dane Magnus Cort Nielsen. Georg Zimmermann took sixth place as the best German.
In August 2020, Kämna had celebrated his first professional victory at the Criterium du Dauphine at the top of the Megeve airfield, a month later he celebrated his first tour success in Villard-de-Lans with an impressive solo ride on stage 16. On the first “real” rest day on Monday, Kämna underpinned his ambitions after just missing out on victory on Friday. “There are still a few beautiful mountain stages, I’ll definitely try it again. The chance will still arise,” said the German time trial champion.
After what was expected to be a turbulent initial phase, it took almost 65 kilometers for a breakaway group to form. And Kämna didn’t miss it. Also in the group of 25 riders was Georg Zimmermann. At the top, the group drove over nine minutes to the main field around dominator Pogacar. Even a short-term climate strike did not initially upset Kämna and Co.
In the thrilling 21-kilometre climb up to Megeve, Kämna’s strength visibly dwindled. He only watched the exciting final of the breakaway group, which Magnus Cort won in the photo finish, from a distance. Then the wait for Pogacar began. But the Slovenian was eleven seconds too fast.
