Lennard Kämna lost touch in the merciless elimination race in Abruzzo. On the 9th stage of the Giro d’Italia, the 25-year-old from Bora-hansgrohe finished 4:34 minutes behind his team-mate Jai Hindley (Australia) and fell well back in the overall classification from second place. Spaniard Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo) defended the lead on arrival at the blockhouse.
Emanuel Buchmann has also shown morality. The former Tour de France fourth was temporarily left behind on Sunday after 191 kilometers of the difficult mountain finish, but fought back and kept the loss within limits with a deficit of 16 seconds.
The Australian Hindley, meanwhile, gave the Bora team the second day’s victory in the Tour of Italy with his victory in front of the Frenchman Romain Bardet and former Giro champion Richard Carapaz.
The previous overall second Kämna, who had triumphed on Etna on Tuesday, had to give up on the 13.6-kilometer final climb with an average gradient of 8.4 percent and lost more than four minutes. The Spaniard Juan Pedro Lopez defended the pink jersey with his last strength. Kämna fell back to rank 15 (+3.26).
With his seventh place, Buchmann jumped up to ninth place overall. 1:09 minutes behind Lopez. In the meantime, a preliminary decision has been made on the captain’s question at Bora. After the Dutchman Wilco Kelderman lost a lot of time, everything is now focused on Hindley and Buchmann.
In any case, the Allgäu native relies on the last week after not going into the Giro with 100 percent. Last year Buchmann was within striking distance of the leaders before he retired after a fall while in sixth place. “It was an unbelievable stage. It was all there. Wilco was out early, we had three guys in the leading group, Lenni fought for the pink jersey and in the end we won the stage,” said Sport Director Jens Zemke.
Kämna tried desperately to keep up on the final climb – without success. Already on Saturday, Kämna had launched an attack on the pink jersey when Thomas De Gendt (Belgium), king of the breakaway, won the stage. But Lopez was alert with eight kilometers to go and right on the German’s rear wheel.
On Monday the drivers can recover from the exertion of the mountain stage between Isernia and Blockhaus. After the rest day, Tuesday continues with a mostly flat section between Pescara and Jesi, a good opportunity for the sprinters. The 85th Giro ends on May 29th in Verona.
