Lennard Kämna starts the difficult last week of the 106th Giro d'Italia in seventh place overall. One day after his teammate Nico Denz's second stage victory, the German hopeful crossed the finish line on Sunday on stage 15 over 195 kilometres from Seregno to Bergamo, just behind the group of favourites.
The day's victory went to American professional cyclist Brandon McNulty in the sprint of a three-man breakaway group ahead of Irishman Ben Healy and Italy's Marco Frigo.
The pink jersey of the overall leader was defended by Frenchman Bruno Armirail after he had made a lot of time the day before. However, the 29-year-old is unlikely to be in contention for overall victory on the difficult mountain stages in the final week.
Former Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas follows 1:08 minutes behind Armirail in second place, with co-favourite Primoz Roglic (Slovenia) already lurking another two seconds behind. Kämna is 3:02 minutes behind.
After the second rest day, the Giro will continue on Tuesday with the 16th stage over 203 kilometers from Sabio Chiese to Monte Bondone. Five mountain classifications, including the final climb at an altitude of 1632 meters, are then to be mastered.