Former Tour de France contender Andreas Klöden has decided to end his cycling career, walking away from the sport at 38 years of age. The German rider was part of the RadioShack Leopard team but was unable to agree satisfactory terms to continue in the sport, with dpa reporting that negotiations had failed.
It is unclear what teams Klöden was speaking to, but several riders from his current team are moving across to the new Trek Factory Racing team in 2014. These include Fabian Cancellara, the Schleck brothers and Jens Voigt.
Another RadioShack Leopard rider, Vuelta winner Chris Horner, had been in negotiation with the team but it confirmed in recent days that he would not be part of the setup next season.
Klöden was one of the most successful German riders of the past decade and a half, finishing as runner-up in the 2004 and 2006 Tours, and also netting fifth in 2009. He took victories in Paris-Nice (2000), the Vuelta al Pais Vasco (2000 and 2011), Tirreno-Adriatico (2007) and the Tour de Romandie (2008), and was bronze medallist in the 2000 Olympic road race.
He raced with the T-Mobile/Telekom team between 1998 and 2006, but left after he was implicated in the Freiburg doping affair. That didn’t result in any sporting sanction, but Klöden paid a substantial sum to charity after the Bonn public prosecutor investigated the matter. That case was subsequently dropped without any admission of guilt.
Klöden competed with the Astana team between 2007 and 2009, the moved to the American-registered Team RadioShack for two years. He accompanied Johan Bruyneel, the title sponsor and several other riders in a transfer across to Leopard prior to the 2012 season, with that Luxembourg-based team changing its name to RadioShack Nissan.
Klöden’s final season was a quiet one, although he was fourth in the Tour of Belgium plus ninth overall in both the Volta ao Algarve and Paris-Nice. He was thirtieth in the Tour de France.