Volta a Catalunya stage 5: Lennard Kämna scores solo win

Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) won Friday’s stage 5 of the Volta a Catalunya after attacking solo from a breakaway group of 41 riders that spent much of the day off the front.

Kämna finished 39 seconds ahead of Ruben Guerreiro (EF Education-Nippo), with Mikel Bizkarra of Euskatel rounding out the podium at 42 seconds.

The stage win came a day after Kämna nearly scored a solo victory after breaking away on stage 4 — he was the final member of an early breakaway to be caught on the summit finish to Port Ainé.

“I’m super happy with it. Yesterday I tried it already and it was a little too early, and the day before I didn’t have the best legs,” Kämna said after Friday’s win. “Now I tried it again and I’m super happy that in the end it worked out.”

Behind, Adam Yates and his Ineos Grenadiers teammates controlled the peloton for much of the 201.1km stage, and there was no change in the race’s top-10 on general classification.

“It’s not a release right now,” Kämna said. “It’s the first race of the season and It’s super nice to be here and have good shape and take a victory.”

Friday’s stage 5 was another day for the climbers, with a lumpy profile that included two categorized climbs, and the grinding cat 1 ascent of the Port de Monserrat (7.5km at 6.7 percent) falling 25km from the finish. Ineos Grenadiers allowed a sizable move to go up the road early, as nobody in the group posed a substantial threat to Yates’ lead. That said, the major group included a smattering of strong riders, among them Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma), Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-Nippo), Marc Hirschi (UAE-Team Emirates), Bob Jungels (AG2R-Citroen), and Rémi Cavagna (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), among many others.

Bizkarra was the best placed breakaway rider on GC, in 19th place at 4:07 down.

Cavagna attacked early alongside Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Victorious), and eventually went off on a solo move, reaching the base of the Monserrat climb by himself. Behind, the breakaway began to shed riders up the climb, with Bizkarra attacking alongside Sebastien Reichenbach (Groupama-FDJ).

Eventually the breakaway’s best climbers caught Cavagna near the summit of the climb. As the group looked around Kämna made his move on a hilly stretch of road, and his attack drew out Verona and Kruijswijk. After another regrouping on the descent Verona made a move on the downhill only to be caught with 10km to go.

Kämna made his move with 7.5km to go on the downhill, and the German crouched down in the super tuck position, pedaling as he sat on his downtube. Behind, the breakaway group hesitated, giving Kämna the moment of surprise he needed to escape for the win.

“I just see it and I have the feeling now it could be the right moment. I had the feeling in that moment. everybody was watching a littl bit and getting annoyed because it was not working well together, so I thought this could be the moment.”

Full report and results to follow.