Cycling: World Cup: Lennard Kämna clinches silver in U23 race

Lennard Kämna even went beyond the pain threshold for his golden world championship dream, but in the end he was also highly satisfied with silver in the U23 road race,”I have suffered like never before in my life over the last three kilometres, but I am also happy about second place,”said the currently biggest German youngster’s hope in cycling.

After all, the 21-year-old finished the World Cup medal lull of the German Cycling Federation (BDR) with a strong performance over a demanding 191 kilometres in Bergen, Norway.It was also the second podium place for Kämna after the title with his professional team Sunweb in the team time trial.

“It was an almost perfect World Cup for me, with gold it would have been even more beautiful,”said Kämna, who only had to give way to the Frenchman Benoit Cosnefroy on the 10th round course.Cosnefroy distanced Kämna after a joint runaway attempt in the finish sprint.

“I just couldn’t get out of the slipstream, I can’t blame myself,”said Kämna.The last German U23 world champion in road racing, Gerald Ciolek, an ex-professional in Salzburg eleven years ago, will remain the winner.

In the final lap of the World Championship race on the salmon hill, Kämna had launched an energetic attack a good twelve kilometres ahead of the finish line, which none of the competitors were able to follow at first.In the passage from the summit of the climb to the finish Cosnefroy caught up with Kämna, both of them then with great effort claimed a lead of three seconds over the approaching peloton.Whoever manages to get to Lennard deserves the victory,”said U23 national coach Ralf Grabsch.

After the unsuccessful World Championships time trials in Bergen on the weekend, BDR has three more opportunities to win medals.In the previous year, there had also been silver for the BDR in the U23 road race by Pascal Ackermann from Palatinate.

Kämna surprised many people at the start of the World Cup when he won the team time trial with Sunweb and delivered an equally strong performance as he did on Friday.For the former junior world champion, the World Championships in Bergen were the highlight of his short professional career so far, which he also wanted to celebrate.

However, he does not yet see himself on his way to becoming a good cyclist, even though he is attested to his potential “There is such a big gap.But it would be nice if in a few years’ time it would go in that direction,”said Kämna, who had been the youngest starter at Vuelta in Spain this season.In the five-man German U23 squad, he was the clear captain and convincingly justified his confidence.