Tour de France: Kämna gives Bora-Hansgrohe a win on stage 16

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Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) soared to the first Grand Tour stage victory on stage 16 of the Tour de France, jumping away from a fractured early breakaway 20km from the finish to take a solo win at Villard-de-Lans.

The German, who impressed at the 2019 Tour and took his first pro victory last month at the Critérium du Dauphiné, had dropped Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) over the top of the Montée de Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte and was never seen again, the Ecuadorian trailing in over a minute down with the combativity prize as a consolation.

Sébastien Reichenbach (Groupama-FDJ) was the best of the rest, taking third at 1:56 ahead of the remainder of the 23-man break. Among them was B&B Hotels-Vital Concept climber, Pierre Rolland, who moved into second place in the mountain classification, level on points with Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale).

"I feel great. It was an absolutely awesome day for me," Kämna said after the finish. "It was a fight from the beginning on and I knew I had to make it to the finish alone.

"When I saw that Carapaz was dropping the speed, I thought now it's the time to go and went all-in to the end. It's a big relief also for the team and for me. I can almost not imagine it. The step I made this year is huge and I'm so blessed to win today."

The GC group crossed the line 17 minutes after Kämna had celebrated his win, though once again on a mountain stage there was to be no separation among the favourites. Primož Roglič and Tadej Pogačar had their Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team Emirates teams set a high pace on the short climb, and Pogačar put in a late attack, but the GC status quo remained in place.

Former contender Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) did, however, shed time, dropping back on the penultimate climb of the day. The Colombian is reportedly suffering a recurrance of the back pain suffered at the Dauphiné, as well as additional knee discomfort.

How it unfolded

Stage 16 would see a return to the mountain after the rest day, though far from the toughest test remaining in the Tour. Five classified climbs lay in wait on the 164km route to Villard-de-Lans, including the second category climbs of the Col de Porte (7.4km at 6.8 per cent, 98km to go) and Côte de Revel (6km at 8 per cent, 94km to go) then the first category Montée de Saint-Nizier-du-Mouchrotte (11.1km at 6.5 per cent, 21km to go), before a third category uphill finish.

As ever, the early stages were dominated by riders fighting to make the breakaway on a day where the break was always going to have a good chance of succeeding. The early battle saw Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) kick off the move, getting brought back before making the move proper after 20km of racing.

The Frenchman was joined out front by Alberto Bettiol (EF Pro Cycling), Nicholas Roche (Team Sunweb), Winner Anacona, Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic), Matteo Trentin (CCC Team), Andrey Amador, Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), Carlos Verona, Imanol Erviti (Movistar), Chris Juul-Jensen (Mitchelton-Scott), Lennard Kämna, Daniel Oss (Bora-Hansgrohe), Sébastien Reichenbach (Groupama-FDJ), and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep).

Further back, Bora-Hansgrohe were attempting to get green jersey contender Peter Sagan in the move and kept working to grab him some points at the intermediate sprint after 40 kilometres. They would eventually concede defeat though, given the strength of the break.

Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept), Casper Pedersen, Tiesj Benoot (Team Sunweb) were chasing in between, making it across after 60km of racing, while Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers), Neilson Powless (EF Pro Cycling), Simon Geschke (CCC Team), Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott) and Romain Sicard (Total Direct Energie) joined the leaders later on to make it 23 up front.

The gap to the break ballooned on the Col de Porte, jumping to 10 minutes at the top. There, Rolland – who lay sixth in the KOM standings, 10 points down on AG2R La Mondiale's Benoît Cosnefroy – grabbed five points in his quest to take over polka dots.

He was off again on the Côte de Revel, making his move 2km from the top to secure another five points, going level with Cosnefroy at the top of the standings. He and the rest of the break had made it to 12 minutes clear as they passed the 50km to go mark, racing through the valley ahead of the penultimate climb of the day.

Rolland's teammate Pacher jumped away from the break at the base of the Montée de Saint-Nizier-du-Mouchrotte. The Frenchman was quick to gain a minute on the climb, prompting a response from Carapaz and Sivakov behind as the break slimmed down to nine riders.

Midway up, with 26km left to run, a four-man chase formed - Reichenbach, Carapaz, Alaphilippe and Kämna - and quickly caught Pacher to make it five at the head of the race. The group wouldn't stick together for long, though, with Pacher dropping under the pace before Alaphilippe also fell back after attempting to follow a Carapaz attack. 

Kämna led the way over the top, getting away alone ahead of the final 20km as Carapaz chased ahead of Reichenbach.

It looked as though it might be a man-vs-man solo fight over the closing section of the race, though Kämna never looked back once he was away. He only gained time on the shallow downhill run to the final climb, distancing Carapaz with ease, the Colombian in turn not giving up second place to Reichenbach.

That was how they crossed the line, with Sivakov the best of the rest, leading a small group across the line 2:34 down. Back in the peloton, competing GC trains formed on the run to the final climb. David De La Cruz (UAE Team Emirates) led out teammate Pogačar before Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) took over, setting a tempo too high for any attacks to go.

Pogačar went with 500 metres to go, but Roglič and the rest of the GC men were right there. Miguel Ángel López (Astana) managed to njump away just before the line, but his move was also negated, meaning no changes at the top of the GC ahead of stage 17's summit finish on the Col de la Loze.