Vuelta a España: Lennard Kämna takes stage nine as weather hits final climb
Germany’s Lennard Kämna completed his set of Grand Tour stage wins with a solo effort on stage nine of the Vuelta a España.
The Bora-Hansgrohe rider, 26, emerged the strongest from an eight-man break on the tough final climb to Collado de la Cruz de Caravaca. The hilly stage from Cartagena was hit by poor weather, with general classification times taken more than 2km from the finish.
Kämna’s opportunism left behind Matteo Sobrero (Jayco-AlUla) and Chris Hamilton (DSM-Firmenich) to add to his previous stage wins at the 2022 Giro d’Italia and 2020 Tour de France. Jumbo Visma’s Sepp Kuss held on to the leader’s red jersey heading into Monday’s rest day.
“I’m super happy. I worked really hard the last couple of months,” Kämna told Eurosport after the ninth stage win of his career. “It was not always easy after the Giro, a lot of setbacks. But I’m so happy that I’m back on the podium and I can take this win.
“It was really tricky at the end because the climb was always going up and down and it was hard to find the moment to drop the others,” the 26year-old added. “But that moment just comes sometimes and I had a little gap to go through. After that it was just a fight to the end.”
The tough final stretch of the summit finish was neutralised on a day when multiple attacks were launched in the winds that blew across the 184.5km stage. The American rider Kuss leads by 43sec, with his teammate Primoz Roglic clawing back two seconds on Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step).
“I’m happy we finished and it was not the finish completely on the top because it was quite tricky with the corners,” Roglic said. “It was a hard climb at the end and I’ve survived [the first week].”
Evenepoel, the defending champion, moved up from sixth to fourth in the overall standings. Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) is in second place, ahead of former leader Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ). Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) is in fifth, sandwiched between Evenepoel and Roglic.