Kämna's Tour de France lead near-miss bittersweet for Bora-Hansgrohe

Lennard Kamna on stage 10 at the Tour de France
Lennard Kamna on stage 10 at the Tour de France (Image credit: Sprint Cycling Agency)

"So near and so far" was one way of summing up the feelings in Bora-Hansgrohe management after it emerged that their German rider Lennard Kämna had spent all day in the breakaway only to come within 11 seconds of taking the Tour de France overall lead from Tadej Pogačar.

"Quietly proud" of what Kämna had almost achieved would be another after he had already come close to success on the Planche des Belles Filles in a breakaway before he was steamrollered by the GC contenders in the final kilometre.

Alasdair Fotheringham

Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The IndependentThe GuardianProCycling, The Express and Reuters.