Lennard Kämna: " I am really happy that it worked out"

Lennard Kämna took a break from pro cycling last year, and has returned to the peloton this season with ambitions to go for stage wins in this early part of the season. After taking the first at Vuelta a Andalucia, he took home another hilly stage at today's Tour of the Alps.

“When I finally made it into the group, I was already dead for the first time. It did cost a lot of energy to be there, and I knew I had to save as much as possible from there on," Kämna said in a post-race interview. He was part of the 12-rider breakaway that set off to fight for the stage win, as they went up the hard Passo Furcia before the flat run-up to the line.

Kämna added: "To me it was also clear that the last climb won’t be decisive, therefore I was happy in the chasing group because the gap was not too big. We came back after the downhill and at that point I knew that I did everything perfect so far."

The stage win was then up for grabs, with Kämna attacking several times in the run-up to Villabassa. His final and decisive attack came inside the final kilometer, and no-one had the legs to close down the move as the German went on to celebrate his win: "From then on it was all in as I knew that I wouldn’t have a chance in the sprint. They brought me back two times, but I saw everybody was on the limit, therefore I tried it a third time. I am really happy that it worked out in the end and this win also means a lot to me ahead of the Giro," he concluded.