Lennard Kämna on repeated breakaway success: "I'm very proud to have done that"

Lennard Kämna has had very specific goals since returning to cycling last year, with the clear ambition of targeting stage wins throughout the year, which he has been very successful in. Today at the Giro d'Italia he has taken his third win of the season for BORA - hansgrohe.

After finding himself in the day's breakaway - and being hinted as a big favourite for the stage, Kämna got himself in a position to fight for the win. "That was a super hard day, especially the final climb," the German said after the finish. He got himself in the 12-rider breakaway that went on in the first slopes of the day, but had a difficult task at hand despite carrying great form into the race.

With the attacks of Stefano Oldani and Juan Pedro López, he found himself in a complicated position: "I almost thought I lost the chance to win the day when I heard that López was 35 seconds ahead. But I was ultimately able to catch up. Then I tried to recover a bit for the sprint and that ended up being a good plan," he added. Sure enough, his plan worked to perfection as he caught up with the Trek - Segafredo climber and easily outsprinted him towards the win - and second place in the overall classification.

At the Vuelta a Andalucia and Tour of the Alps, he purposefully lost time in order to target stage wins from a breakaway, with success. After his late attack failed on the opening day, Kämna rode slowly into the line in order to have the freedom to repeat his strategy. Although the GC teams didn't worry, allowing many climbers into the break and into the first places in the overall classification, Kämna was able to take another strong win.

"To have this victory in the bag is particularly important for our team and takes some of the pressure off. Everything went well for us and we’re on the right track. I’ve now also taken the lead in the mountain classification, the first classification jersey I've worn in my career and I'm very proud to have done that," he concluded.