Bad details about the accident on Tenerife are becoming known

German professional cyclist Lennard Kämna may have narrowly escaped with his life in his serious training accident on Tenerife. “If I look at the overall picture, then he was really lucky,” said Ralph Denk, head of Kämna’s Bora-hansgrohe team, at sportschau.de. The first reports that reached Denk from the scene of the accident said that “Lennard was in really bad shape,” said Denk, “and I was really worried about him.”

The 27-year-old suffered numerous injuries in the accident on Wednesday last week, when Kämna collided with a car. “He’s doing well now given the circumstances, but it was a severe impact. His bike was completely destroyed,” said Denk: “Lennard is now out of the intensive care unit, that’s a good sign. But he is still in the general ward in the hospital in Tenerife and we don’t have a plan yet as to how long he will have to stay.”

“Come back to a normal life”

The top German racer Kämna was actually supposed to ride the Giro d’Italia from the beginning of May, but now all plans are lost. “We on the team have one goal: to give him the best possible medical support and for him to get back to a normal life as quickly as possible,” said Denk: “Only then will we think about cycling again. And there is no plan as to when who will start training again and when they will race again.”

Things are looking better for Bora-hansgrohe’s Slovenian star Primoz Roglic, who fell on the Tour of the Basque Country last week, as did Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard. “His knee took the brunt of it, he has a bruise there. Otherwise he has abrasions all over his body, he looked like he did after the war,” said Denk. The impact on Roglic’s plans for the Tour de France is still unclear: “At the moment, only moderate indoor training is possible for him,” said Denk: “If he gets back on the bike in the next few days, it will probably only be a small one Setback. If he has to miss any longer, it will be really difficult to make up for it.”

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Discussions about safety in cycling are now increasing, “because this time the star riders were also affected. If they hadn’t been such big names, the discussions would probably have been smaller,” said Denk. Everyone involved is currently thinking about it, including the organizers, the world association and the drivers. “But it’s not that easy. There is no silver bullet that will make our sport safer,” said Denk.