Lennard Kämna kept stroking her head, nervously skidding back and forth.The 21-year-old didn’t really want to believe it, but then the World Cup title with his team Sunweb was a reality.After the surprise gold medal in the team time trial, Kämna slapped his hands in front of his face and fell into the arms of his colleagues around Giro winner Tom Dumoulin,”It’s unbelievable, we didn’t expect that.Is that really true?”, Kämna said.
Almost sensationally defeated Kämna and Co.The World Cup kick-off in Bergen, Norway, will see the much more highly regarded teams such as Sky with Christopher Froome, BMC Racing and defending champion Quick-Step Floors.In 47:50 minutes, Sunweb set a record time in which all the competitors bite their teeth out.Kämna drove the furious ride to its limit:”I suffered extremely, it was just at the limit.”
For Sunweb, the first day of the Road World Championships offered a dream scenario.Hours earlier, the women’s formation of the team had already won the gold medal.Curious though: The women’s team Sunweb rides under the Dutch flag, the German national anthem was played by the German licensed men’s team.
For former junior world champion Kämna it is nevertheless the biggest success of his short professional career so far.Born in Wedel near Hamburg, Germany, the professional cyclist was most recently the youngest starter at Vuelta in Spain and is currently considered perhaps the greatest German talent.
As in the previous year, the BMC team won silver (+8.29 seconds), while Sky won the bronze medal (+22.35) with Tour and Vuelta winner Froome.Time trial specialist Tony Martin and his team Katjuscha-Alpecin drove far beyond the podium as expected, but the performance was disappointing.After 42.5 km, Martin’s team missed out on ninth place for 1’45 “The dream was to finish in bronze.But it didn’t go 100 percent, we had too much of a performance gap in the team,”Martin said.
For the 32-year-old, the race was above all a test run for the coming year, if he wants to get in on the front line with Katjuscha.But then a huge increase will be necessary,”We have gathered good experience.The track was extremely difficult,”Martin said.In the individual time trial on Wednesday, four-time world champions are only outsiders this time, because at the end of the race there is an over three km long and poisonous climb in the way, which significantly reduces Martin’s chances.
Last year, Martin and top sprinter Marcel Kittel raced to gold with the Belgian formation Quick Step.Kittel, who will follow Martin to the Swiss Katjuscha team next season, was abandoned by Quick Step this time because of the very demanding track with some uphill passages.Kämna and Sunweb the course was perfect.
The competition, which was re-launched in 2012 as a race for sponsor teams, is increasingly being criticised, partly because of the costs to be borne.The logistical and organisational effort for a racing day is immense for the teams.Every year there are cancellations.In Bergen, only eleven of the 18 teams from the World Tour, the first league of cycling, started.For Sunweb and Kämna the effort paid off this time.
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