Before tomorrow's rest day, a mountainous stage in the region of Murcia was on the agenda. On the first climb of the day, Lennard Kämna managed to jump into an eight-man breakaway, which was able to carve out a maximum lead of 8:30 minutes throughout the stage. On the final climb to Alto Caravaca de la Cruz, which featured gradients of up to 20 percent, the lead group had a gap of almost 5 minutes over the GC group. On the steep ramps of the final climb, Kämna, Sobrero and Gehbreigzabhier were able to go clear from their escapee companions and with 5km remaining, Kämna launched an attack. Sobrero was close on his heels, but the German BORA - hansgrohe rider fought to the end and crossed the finish line solo. With this victory, his palmarès now contains stage wins in all the Grand Tours.
Result
01 L Kämna 4:28:59
02 M. Sobrero +0:13
03 C. Hamilton +1:12
From the Finish Line
"I worked very hard the past few months. It wasn’t necessarily easy after the Giro as I had some setbacks, so I’m really happy to have been able to take this win. It was pretty hectic today, with the echelons. I tried to make it through them without spending too much energy, and eventually I found myself in the front and had enough energy left in the tank to go for it. It was a tough parcours, because it was a constant up and down, so it was hard to find a good moment to drop the others. I tried to read the situation and had a feeling that now could be the time, and when I got a gap, I decided to go full gas after the corner. Then it was just a matter of surviving alone until the end. It’s incredible to now have taken wins in all three Grand Tours, so thanks to my teammates and the entire team here for their support, I really appreciate it.” - Lennard Kämna
"We wanted to give Lenni the opportunity to race for the stage win today, while the other guys were to support Aleks and Cian in the peloton. And in the end it was an incredible day. Lenni has now won stages in all the Grand Tours, which is a great achievement. And back in the peloton, Aleks did very well, while Cian was also up there. The stage was very hard and extremely challenging in terms of the parcours and so we're happy that we could finish the day like this. So we are very pleased and hope to continue like this here at the Vuelta." - Bernie Eisel, Sports Director