“I’ve always loved volcanoes,” tweeted Lennard Kämna. His power and pace seemed fiery as he rode the volcano on Tuesday. Last year he was still doing a personal dance on the volcano – with acute danger of falling and burning out.
The drive for his sport was temporarily gone completely, only ashes. The emotional outburst after Kämna’s triumphal ride at the Giro d’Italia up Mount Etna, an active volcano, was all the greater. With him, an unusual guy in the peloton, and his German racing team Bora-hansgrohe.
Throughout his career, the man from Bremen has been seen as the up-and-coming man in German cycling, with great hope of one day being at the top of the big state tours. A circumstance with which the brooding disposition had to struggle hard. On the one hand, Kämna’s path was marked by days when his exuberant talent, coupled with a pronounced instinct for the right attacking behavior in crucial racing situations, formed an ominous alliance for the competition. But on the other hand also of dark days when he wasn’t even able to get on his bike. The expectations from outside and enormous expectations of his own performance formed an ominous alliance for himself.
At the age of 25, he has already taken a month-long break twice in his career. Because he was physically exhausted and mentally blocked. Most recently in May of last year, when he canceled the 2021 cycling season before it had really picked up speed. In an interview with the “Weser-Kurier” he spoke, who otherwise hides private things from the public, very openly about having “lived my life wrong”. He was not happy enough about successes and was not able to cope with setbacks, even if they were small. In addition, he had developed too few interests and distractions beyond the consuming cycling. Also thanks to sport psychological help he was able to solve some cramps.
His team Bora-hansgrohe has backed him and extended the contract until the end of 2024 during Kämna’s break. It was like a ten-day therapy session on someone else’s bikes for the North German when the racing team made it possible for him to start at the Cape Epic, the most important mountain bike race, in South Africa last autumn.
All of this is worth knowing in order to appreciate how far it was to return to Kämna’s victory voyage on the edge of the volcano after two deep personal crises. “Lennard learned from us and we also learned from Lennard. He’s a special guy,” says Bora team boss Ralph Denk. “And when he drives off, he usually wins.”
After the three opening stages in Hungary, the Giro d’Italia got rolling again on Tuesday on Sicilian soil. The last 30 of the 172 kilometers to the finish at almost 1900 meters were uphill. A terrain made for an aggressive and clever professional like Lennard Kämna. In the first stage, the former junior world champion in the time trial had already set a first scent mark with a powerful start at this 105th edition of the Tour of Italy. In the time trial, he had convinced with eighth place. So the tools were right to go into the breakaway group on the first mountain stage, to drive those gathered there to the ground and also to prevail in the sprint against the remaining competitor Juan Pedro López (Team Trek-Segafredo).
Top performers among themselves: Juan Pedro Lopez in the pink jersey of the overall leader and Lennard Kämna in the blue mountain jersey
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Image: EPA
The free role outside of the tactical corset that is usually tightly tied in cycling, the Kämna in the team, which with the three captains Buchmann, Kelderman and Hindley is primarily aiming for the overall ranking, inspired him. “The whole climb was a poker game. I never knew how good my competitors are,” said Kämna. “Having this win in the bag is particularly important for our team and takes the pressure off. Everything is on the right track for us.”
Mountain jersey and second place overall claimed
Especially since the lightweight was allowed to pull a jersey over his narrow shoulders for the first time in his career: the blue of the best climber. Kämna’s escape companion López slipped into the pink jersey of the overall leader. The North German also claimed the mountain jersey and second place overall on the fifth stage on Wednesday, which was won by Frenchman Arnaud Démare (Team Groupama-FDJ) after 174 kilometers in a mass sprint at the finish line in Messina.
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It is unlikely that the peloton will allow Kämna to rejoin a breakaway group in the coming days. The very difficult mountain tests, i.e. Kämna’s preferred hunting ground, are only waiting for the pros in the third Giro week.
During a training camp at Bora-hansgrohe, a nickname for Kämna was recently devised: Bolzminister. Minister perhaps because Kämna knows how to express herself fluently and ministerially in German and English. And he’s good at speed anyway, preferably on difficult stages and gladly as a soloist. This is how he achieved six professional victories, three this season alone. After winning a mountainous stage of the 2020 Tour de France, his coup on Etna is of course the highest. The victory definitely had all the ingredients for a milestone in Kämna’s career. Composed of volcanic rock of course.
