Kämna was always a big talent. A very good junior, winning the ITT worlds and racing for the win in almost any bigger stage race he started as a 2nd year. He then went to Stölting, a CT team in his first year and PCT team in his 2nd year. He turned pro with 19 and got a lot of racing, culminating in a bronze at U23 ITT worlds followed by a fourth place a year later. Signed up by Sunweb he got to a good start, even though he had some illness issues, with placings in ITTs and some minor stage races. Rode his first GT at the 2017 Vuelta and was part of the TTT world champs squad. And then 2018 happened. He had massive illness issues and team and him decided to pull him from racing and even stopping his training. He moved back from cologne to his home near Bremen, and slowly built up again in June after about 3 months without racing. He had a quiet but solid end to the year in which he was scheduled to make his TDF debut. 2019 was the same, solid racing until June, where he began stepping it up. Impressive climbing in both Tour de Suisse and then the Tour, great 3rd week and recovery. Then obviously went to Bora and is now being coached by Lorang. He is being built up there slowly, like all the other talents Bora developed, but his performance this week shows his potential.
He was always a very gifted ITTer. But with his light built and his improved climbing he has started to switch into more of a climber over the last 1-2 years. He has been saying that, at Bora, he wants to continue improving his climbing but also work on his ITT again. He was scheduled to be Buchmanns right hand man, learning from him for the future and maybe go for a stage. They are developing him to ride for GCs in the future and he definitely has the engine for that. The comparisons to Klöden are very accurate in that there is a huge engine in his light frame. The question for the future will be if he can combine both his improved climbing level with his old ITT prowess. As we saw today and also at the Tour last year, the recovery and 3rd week level is there. He is also a very level headed person.
Today Poitschke said that, if Buchmann is out for the Tour, the plan for Kämna is to go for a stage and not try and ride for a lower GC placing. I think Bora are very cautious with him, given his illness issues in the past, the german press obsessiveness for a german GC rider at the Tour and not putting too much pressure on him. So far it seems to work and his level is only rising.