Lennard Kämna was stopped on Monday (28.08.23) while chasing a Vuelta stage win shortly before the mountain finish in Andorra-Arinsal. On the third stage of the 78th Tour of Spain, the former Junior World Champion already had his sights set on the day’s victory before the group of cycling stars around time trial world champion Remco Evenepoel and tour champion Jonas Vingegaard rushed in around 1.5 kilometers from the finish line .
Evenepoel took the stage and the red jersey for first place overall, but he collided with a woman shortly after the finish line and suffered a laceration on his head.
In the meantime, Kämna already looked like the winner. The 26-year-old had already shaken off fellow Italian escapee Damiano Caruso on the final climb, which was 8.3 kilometers long and had an average gradient of 7.7 percent. In the last few kilometers, however, the stars of the industry pushed the pace and decided the victory among themselves. Nobody had anything to oppose the explosiveness of last year’s winner Evenepoel. The Belgian won ahead of Vingegaard and the Spaniard Juan Ayuso. In the overall standings, Evenepoel is now five seconds ahead of Spaniard Enric Mas. Vingegaard is fourth, 31 seconds back.
Kämna is waiting for the Vuelta victory of the day
So Kämna still has to wait for his first Vuelta stage success. The North German had previously won the Tour de France (2020) and the Giro d’Italia (2022). The overall ranking doesn’t matter to him this year.
On Tuesday, the fourth stage is a bit more leisurely. Over 185 kilometers from Andorra la Vella to Tarragona there are only two mountains of the third category to be conquered. The final Grand Tour of the season ends in Madrid on September 17th.