After Belles Filles heartbreak, Lennard Kämna narrowly misses out again on career-marking achievement - "Got nothing in hands for the second time"

Lennard Kämna was one of the main favourites for today's stage at the Tour de France, but found himself not only in contention to take the stage win, but also to pull on the yellow jersey. However at the end of the day he got none.

“I just wanted to go for the stage today but that really wasn’t easy. I had the impression that everyone was riding against me," the German climber said after the stage, "and the last climb was no fun at all. I had good legs again, but I also had to invest a lot during the day, especially when once that bigger group was in front on the last climb."

8:43 minutes down on Tadej Pogacar at the start of the day, few would've predicted Kämna to be on the brink of becoming new race leader. A combination of no other GC contenders aswell as a calm-moving peloton saw that whole gap eliminated though, and Kämna tried to push into the race lead once he saw the competition was strong on the slopes of the ascent to the Megève Aerodrome.

"The last three kilometers I just went full gas as I knew already at that point that the win was gone. I didn’t expect in the end that it would be so close regarding the Yellow Jersey, but it is of course disappointing now to realize I almost got it and finally got nothing in hands for the second time," he concluded.

The BORA - hansgrohe rider finished tenth on the day, and missed out on the race lead by 11 seconds. A hard pill to swallow, on the back of having been caught by Pogacar and Vingegaard at Planche des Belles Filles earlier in the race in the very final meters of the stage. The German will continue hunting stages, although his second place in the overall classification may give him dreams of aiming for a different goal.