Completely exhausted and looking anxious, Lennard Kämna crossed the finish line at an altitude of 1460 metres, his dream of the yellow jersey shattered shortly afterwards.
Kämna is eleven seconds short of the Tour de France yellow jersey
The North German from the team missed out by a tiny eleven seconds. Bora-Hansgrohe with the big fighter's heart on a chaotic stage in the Alps, the coveted maillot jaune.
On the tenth stage over 148.1 kilometres from Morzine Les Portes du Soleil to Megève, which was temporarily interrupted due to climate activists on the carriageway and of major corona worries in the Team UAE Emirates accompanied by dominator Tadej Pogacar, Kämna finished tenth in a breakaway group. Pogacar reached the Alpine town 8:32 minutes later. That was enough for the Slovenian to secure yellow.
Pogacar knows no mercy
"I had the feeling that everyone was riding against me. It was no fun being in the lead group. I rode the last two kilometres with everything I had. The victory was gone anyway," said Kämna, who then watched the seconds thriller on his racing bike with a towel. But Pogacar was merciless, as he had been four days earlier in Planche des Belles Filles. The day's victory went to the Dane Magnus Cort Nielsen (EF Education Easypost).
Nevertheless, the Germans were among the protagonists on this Alpine stage: Kämna's compatriot Georg Zimmermann (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) also belonged to the leading group and finished sixth. And Simon Geschke (Cofidis) successfully defended his mountain jersey. Kämna is second overall.
Martin so far last German in the yellow jersey
Almost exactly 25 years after Jan Ullrich's triumphant ride, Kämna came very close to becoming the 15th German to take the yellow jersey. Unlike the four-time time trial world champion, however, Kämna is also a man for the mountains, having already won the Tour mountain stage to Villard-de-Lans in 2020, and as recently as May, the lightweight from the Bora-Hansgrohe team triumphed in the Giro d'Italia on the Etna.
As on the seventh stage, when Pogacar snatched the stage win from Kämna 100 metres before the finish, the former junior world champion from Germany was once again in attack mode. Kämna attacked in an escape group and gained minute after minute. On the final climb, things got tighter and tighter, but in the end the lead was not enough.
Demonstrators cause disruption
Climate activists had previously caused the race to be interrupted. A good 36 kilometres before the finish, the race came to a standstill after up to 20 demonstrators blocked the race on the road and set off pyrotechnics. There was also a curious incident before the start of the stage, when the EF Education EasyPost team bus got stuck in the car park.
The day was less stressful for Geschke. Due to the large breakaway group, the mountain jersey was not in danger for the Berlin veteran with the full beard.
Corona alarm in Pogacar's team
The man in yellow, on the other hand, is on corona alert. Two more of Pogacar's team-mates tested positive, while Rafal Majka was allowed to continue his ride for the time being because the Pole is considered to be barely infectious. "This is a very difficult situation. We rode together every day, but in the hotel we try to avoid each other as much as possible. I just hope that nobody else has been infected," said Pogacar.
On the first difficult high mountain stage on Wednesday will show how competitive the Slovenian's team still is. On Tuesday, New Zealander George Bennett also had to pull out after a positive test, and the Norwegian Vegard Stake Laengen from Pogacar's team had already been affected. Since the Australian Luke Durbridge from the BikeExchange-Jayco team tested positivethe tour recorded corona cases number four and five.
Tour showdown expected on Wednesday
On Wednesday, the first big battle is likely to take place when the riders first climb the 2642 metre high Col du Galibier. At the end, the climb to the Col du Granon, another mountain in the highest category, awaits.
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