"I want to return to the Tour": Lennard Kämna hopes to put a cherry on top of his miraculous recovery
Cycling
Lennard Kämna's career has taken a sharp turn in 2024 when he was hit by a car during training. The damage was quite severe and the 29-year-old's career was on the line for a long time. Fortunately, at Lidl-Trek, they believed in his full recovery and offered Kämna to restart his career with the German-American formation.
Between 2020 and 2023, Kämna won a stage at each of the three Grand Tours (Tour 2020, Giro 2022, Vuelta 2023), showcasing his ability to succeed in the hardest mountain stages. Before completing the collection, the German climber has also taken a shot at the GC work, finishing 9th overall at the 2023 Giro d'Italia.
Although with BORA's (his then team) GC ambitions growing faster than the German's performances after recruitments of Primoz Roglic and Daniel Felipe Martínez in 2024, the German could still hope to aim for a potentialy top-5 in the future. Until the disaster struck. An entire year had passed between his last start at Tirreno-Adriatico in early March 2024 and comeback at the Volta a Catalunya at the end of March 2025.
Since then, he has made a return to racing in the Lidl-Trek jersey, clocking in 47 race days this season. In particular the summer has been successful for Kämna with 6th places overall at the Tour de Suisse, and two weeks later also at the Tour of Austria (2.1). The Vuelta a Espana was then on his menu, but unfortunately a Covid infection halted those plans.
What followed was a two-month pause from racing and then a modest conclusion of the year with bleak performances in UK, Luxmebourg, and finally at the European Championships in Ardeche. But the eyes were already set on 2026 at that moment. After all, Kämna has already proven to himself that it's possible - to ride with the best again.
But in his comments, he sounded much more modest when speaking about his goals. "For me, it would be a great success if I could achieve some good results here and there," he opened in an inteview for SID. "But if, overall, I have a good, consistent season, that would also be a real success for me."
It's been the block of racing around June/July that gave the German the much-needed confirmation that he can return to his former strength. "I'm actually very pleased to have managed, around the middle of the year, to get back to peak form and show that I'm as strong as before."
Lennard Kämna, winning the stage 9 of 2023 Vuelta a Espana
Return to the Tour
Speaking of future goals, it doesn't seem like contesting general classifications at Grand Tours will be Kämna's objective anymore. Rather, he would prefer to revive his offensive style of racing. And perhaps win another Grand Tour stage. "I really want to win a race again and be at the start of the Tour de France."
After all, Lidl-Trek has for more promising GC prospects in Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose. And then there are the rumours of Derek Gee's arrival. With Jonathan Milan, Mads Pedersen or Giulio Ciccone all hunting stage wins at Grand Tours, it won't be easy for Kämna to assert himself in this competition.
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Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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