April, 2024. Lennard Kämna is training in Tenerife. It’s a month before the Giro d’Italia, where the German is set to be Bora-hansgrohe’s co-leader alongside Dani Martínez. For the second year in a row, he’s parking his stage hunting ambitions for an attempt at the general classification. “I was in really good shape and on track for the Giro, my big goal,” he says. As he goes out training every morning on the Spanish island, he tells himself to be careful. “In my head and in my mind, I'm saying: ‘don’t take too much risk when descending’. If I go hard now and have a crash, it won’t help me.” He doesn’t usually caution himself.
On Wednesday, April 3, he’s descending when a car veers into his path and knocks him off his bike. He’s transferred to hospital and placed in intensive care. Those thoughts he had turned out to be cruelly prescient. “I was really thinking about it [crashing] and then it actually happened. It was really weird.” His injury list is long: multiple broken ribs, a fractured shoulder blade and scapula, severe chest trauma, and lung contusion.
Fortunately, his condition improves and after three days he’s moved out of ICU. “I was always conscious, but I only have about 10 minutes of memory of my three days in the emergency room,” Kämna, 27, tells Rouleur and international press in late January. “I didn’t know why I was in hospital, and it was like: woah, all of a sudden I’m here, but why? It took me a long time to realise what happened and that it wasn’t a dream but reality.”
Image: Lidl-Trek
He slowly comes round, but processing the accident takes time. “When I heard what happened, I was quite emotional. I didn’t know how dramatic it was and I thought maybe the Giro might not be possible, but afterwards I could maybe be fit for this or that event. I couldn’t get in my mind how bad the injury was.” It’s so disruptive that when Kämna makes his debut for Lidl-Trek on March 24 at Volta a Catalunya, it will be one year and two weeks since he last raced.
The long recovery
Kämna spent four weeks “mostly sleeping” in hospital in Tenerife, and then another four in Hamburg. Upon his return to Germany, his family were shocked. “The first thing my brother said was: ‘man, you don’t look good. You’re far too skinny’.” His girlfriend was with him throughout his two months in hospital. “Without her bringing food in from the outside, I’d have had 5% body fat. Even though I wasn’t doing a lot, my body still needed a lot of calories for my recovery.”
Because his injuries were restricted to his upper body, Kämna never feared that he wouldn’t return to bike racing, but exercise was a distant dream during his lengthy hospital stay. “My legs were OK and after a few days I could stand up and walk a bit with some help,” he says. “But for the first four weeks I didn’t even go to the hospital garden – I stayed on the same floor.” His muscles wasted away. “There was not a lot left of them,” he reveals.
After 63 days, Kämna was finally able to resume cycling. “My first time riding outside was a super great feeling,” he smiles. “Joyful. I was really happy. And it felt super natural. Because I forgot everything, I wasn’t scared about descending or riding outside.” But his return to WorldTour racing would have to wait – a long time. “After all the time in hospital and in rehab, I was in really good shape for a normal person, but really far away from being a pro athlete. Also, it took me some time to get back into the mindset of a pro athlete. I was on the bike and could train, but I was far away from doing a pro’s daily training schedule. I was not ready for high performance endurance sport, neither physically nor mentally.”
In August, it was announced that Kämna would be departing Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe after five seasons and nine wins (including stages in all three Grand Tours) and joining Lidl-Trek. Was it difficult to leave? “No,” he shoots back, surprisingly. “At one point it would of course have been difficult, but the way it was in the end I am really happy I could leave.”
It’s never been reported that the German might have had a strained relationship with Ralph Denk’s team. “In general I had a good relationship with the team,” he says. “I really liked the start, I had a good trainer, I had a good relationship with all the riders, and I felt comfortable for sure. But when something like this happens, it’s never perfect for either side. For sure the end was not what you wished for after a long and good chemistry before. But it was not a nice end. I was five years in Bora, but I had a shitty accident and didn’t race the last half a year. It wasn’t the outcome me or Bora were hoping for.”
Image: Zac Williams/SWPix.com
Whatever grievances Kämna does or doesn’t feel towards his former employers, Lidl-Trek represents a new beginning. “I decided to sign for a ton of reasons. I can only say I am super happy to be here. They know I had this accident and expectations are not too high for Catalunya, but the hope and expectations are that I’ll come back to my old level.”
If all goes well, Kämna hopes to be selected for this summer’s Tour de France, but he acknowledges that “a lot has to go right, and I’m totally aware it’s not an easy task to be there.” Long-term, though – and he’s signed for three years with Lidl-Trek – he expects to add to his palmarès and also target the GC in shorter stage races. “I want to win Grand Tour stages again, and win other races – it’s my big goal. I’ve got the feeling that it helps to be in a new environment and to have a completely fresh start. I feel confident about the future.”
His return to racing will be the culmination of a long and frustrating road, but Kämna, once the subject of German train graffiti – “I have to say it was good art work,” he laughs, “especially the volcano and Giro trophy.” – will be most grateful that he was able to take to a startline once again. “In the end, I was super lucky with the outcome,” he says. “That I am able to sit here and do pro sports again, that’s incredible. It’s a really big thing.”
