In the sweltering heat, a veteran prevails, the German narrowly misses the day’s win again. Simon Geschke continues to collect points.
Fought as hard as nails, sweated a lot and then just failed again: Lennard Kämna missed the longed-for stage victory again on the 14th stage of the Tour de France. After a heat battle in the Massif Central, the 25-year-old German cycling hope from the Bora-hansgrohe team ended up as a breakaway in eighth place. The Australian Michael Matthews, who celebrated his fourth career success in the Tour of France, clawed the stage victory.
“I wasn’t at 100 percent. At the end of the day, that’s the five percent that’s missing to fight for victory here,” said an annoyed Kämna at the finish: “I did my best, what can you do.”
The decision was made two kilometers before the finish
Kämna was part of a large group of leaders for a long time – but on the last poisonous climb of the day, the strength was not enough for the really big hit. After the drama on the seventh stage, when he was only a few meters away from victory on the Super Planche des Belles Filles, Kämna had to let the other top riders go a few kilometers before the finish line this time.
One of them was Matthews, who made a strong impression all day and gave his BikeExchange-Jayco team the acclaimed first stage win of this year’s Tour at Mende Airport. With just two kilometers to go he flew past Italy’s Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) who finished second ahead of France’s Thibaut Pinot.