Mission achieved. Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) was simply one among two riders who might full his set of Grand Tour stage triumphs on this yr’s Vuelta a España and the German fulfilled his objective with a solo victory on Sunday.
With 9 skilled victories in his palmares up to now, in races as prestigious because the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, the Criterium du Dauphiné and the German Nationwide Championships in addition to the three Grand Excursions, Kämna stated his breakaway triumphs had been at all times conditioned by one issue: he has to win alone.
“I at all times attempt to make it solo as a result of I am not so quick within the sprints, so it’s higher for me,” he advised reporters after his stage 9 victory, “in actual fact, I don’t suppose I’ve ever received a dash.”
Kämna saved to his regular profitable fashion on the Collado de la Cruz de Caravaca, powering away some 4 kilometres from the road to win forward of Italy’s Matteo Sobrero (Jayco-AIUIa) by 13 seconds.
Whereas he stated it was ‘laborious’ to seek out the precise second to assault, the best way he has honed his technique as a breakaway specialist was evident from how he described how he dealt with the purpose the place he made his profitable transfer.
“The second simply comes typically, you attempt to really feel the scenario. I noticed I had a bit of hole in a left-hand nook, after which I went full on, straight after the nook to get a niche. After that, I attempted to go completely over my restrict for 2 minutes, after which it was only a combat to the top.”
Kämna has a well-deserved repute amongst his teammates for his skill to ‘learn’ a race and on stage 9 of the Vuelta it proved invaluable. The German recounted that his intestine intuition had advised him that though the primary a part of the 184.5-kilometre stage had been peppered with echelons, he at all times had the sensation that the race would lastly reform, after which a break would go clear. And so it proved to be.
“I attempted to get via the echelons nearly as good as doable, and saving as a lot power as doable, as a result of I at all times thought it could come again collectively once more on the climb,” he stated.
“Then I felt I had a whole lot of energy in my tank, but it surely was laborious to seek out the second to drop the others as a result of the climb was at all times going up and down, up and down.”
Lastly, Kämna broke clear, and the top result’s that on the comparatively younger age of 26 and after a solo win in Villard-de-Lans within the Tour in 2020 and forward of Juanpe López (Lidl-Trek) on the Etna within the Giro in 2022, he now has accomplished his Grand Tour set of wins. From hereon, he stated, his subsequent goal could be a return to his GC ambitions that he first harnessed within the Giro this Might, putting ninth within the general rating by the point the race completed in Rome.
“The Giro was fairly laborious for me, it didn’t actually work completely as a result of I received fairly sick within the final week and was combating for survival.”
“So it wasn’t a dream situation however I hope to repeat that have in higher situation sooner or later,” he stated. “I undoubtedly wish to strive it once more.”