Leopold König
König at the 2014 Tour of Britain
Personal information
Full nameLeopold König
Born (1987-11-15) 15 November 1987
Moravská Třebová, Czechoslovakia
Height1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight62 kg (137 lb)
Team information
Current teamRetired
DisciplineRoad
RoleRider
Rider typeAll-rounder
Professional teams
2006–2010PSK Whirlpool–Hradec Krlove
2011–2014Team NetApp
2015–2016Team Sky
2017–2019Bora–Hansgrohe[1]
Major wins
Grand Tours
Vuelta a España
1 individual stage (2013)
1 TTT stage (2016)

One-day races and Classics

National Time Trial Championships (2016)

Leopold König (born 15 November 1987) is a Czech former professional road cyclist, who rode professionally between 2006 and 2019 for the PSK Whirlpool–Author, NetApp–Endura, Team Sky and Bora–Hansgrohe teams. Since retiring, he has acted as the race director for the Czech Cycling Tour and the Course de la Paix U23 – Grand Prix Jeseníky.[2][3]

Career

Early career

Born in the small Czech town of Moravská Třebová, 100 miles (160 kilometres) east of Prague, König as a child played ice hockey, using his bike solely for fitness until he started road racing at the age of 14.[4]

Team NetApp (2011–2014)

König at the 2013 Vuelta a España, where he achieved a stage victory.

König was a stage winner in Caerphilly in September 2012 at the Tour of Britain and in May 2013, he won the queen stage of the Tour of California finishing atop Mount Diablo. König detached himself from a small group in the final kilometers and caught Janier Acevedo, dropping him with only 300 m (980 ft) to go.[5]

However both these wins were eclipsed in August 2013 when he claimed his team's maiden Grand Tour victory by winning a mountain stage to Alto Peñas Blancas in the Vuelta a España after catching climber Igor Antón in the final 500 metres.

König took part in his first Tour de France in 2014, finishing seventh overall after rising two places from ninth by placing fifth in the final time trial.

Team Sky (2015–2016)

König signed for Team Sky for the 2015 season.[6] König achieved his first podium place for the team, scoring third place at the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana.[7] In the Giro d'Italia, he took over the leadership role as his leader Richie Porte suffered a massive loss of time and ultimately withdrew.[8] On Stage 16 featuring the Mortirolo Pass, König was docked 10 seconds for holding onto cars.[9] König performed well in the final stages but not well enough to secure a top 5 finish, finishing 6th overall.

Bora–Hansgrohe (2017–2019)

After two years with Team Sky, König returned to his former team – now known as Bora–Hansgrohe – on a three-year contract.[10] In the first half of the 2017 season, König only competed in two races due to injury.[11] Following his injury-related withdrawal from the 2018 Tirreno–Adriatico, Konig did not race again for the team over the remaining 21 months of his contract, and had no interaction with his Bora–Hansgrohe teammates.[12]

Major results

Source: [13]

2005
7th Overall Giro della Lunigiana
2007
9th Overall Okolo Slovenska
2009
6th Grand Prix Kooperativa
9th Grand Prix Boka
2010
1st Overall Oberösterreich Rundfahrt
1st Stage 1
1st Overall Czech Cycling Tour
1st Stage 2
1st Stage 3 Tour of Bulgaria
3rd Time trial, National Road Championships
3rd Prague–Karlovy Vary–Prague
5th Overall Szlakiem Grodów Piastowskich
2011
2nd Road race, National Road Championships
2nd Overall Tour of Austria
1st Young rider classification
3rd Overall Tour de l'Ain
9th Overall Tour of Britain
2012
1st Stage 2b (TTT) Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali
3rd Overall Tour of Utah
6th Grand Prix of Aargau Canton
10th Overall Tour of Britain
1st Stage 6
2013
1st Overall Czech Cycling Tour
1st Stage 3
1st Stage 7 Tour of California
6th Overall Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali
9th Overall Vuelta a España
1st Stage 8
2014
4th Overall Bayern–Rundfahrt
7th Overall Tour de France
2015
National Road Championships
2nd Road race
2nd Time trial
3rd Overall Giro del Trentino
3rd Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana
5th Trofeo Andratx-Mirador d'Es Colomer
6th Overall Giro d'Italia
8th Overall Abu Dhabi Tour
10th Overall Czech Cycling Tour
1st Stage 3
2016
1st Time trial, National Road Championships
1st Stage 1 (TTT) Vuelta a España
9th Trofeo Pollenca-Port de Andratx
10th Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour 2013 2014 2015 2016
A pink jersey Giro d'Italia — — 6 —
A yellow jersey Tour de France — 7 70 —
A red jersey Vuelta a España 9 — — 29
Legend
— Did not compete
DNF Did not finish

References

  1. ↑ "With Christoph Pfingsten, BORA – hansgrohe completes its roster for 2019". Bora–Hansgrohe. Denk Pro Cycling GmbH & Co. KG. 12 October 2018. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  2. ↑ "Leo König: "It was a fantastic drama and we want to go even higher."". Czech Cycling Tour. Czech Cycling Tour, s.r.o. 16 August 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  3. ↑ "The Peace Race U23 will again be a showcase for young talent; Tadej Pogačar was also a competitor". Course de la Paix U23 – Grand Prix Jeseníky. Czech Cycling Tour, s.r.o. 25 May 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2022. "We are convinced we will again see one of the future stars," believes Leopold König, a former elite cyclist and now race director.
  4. ↑ Cycling Weekly, Introducing Leopold Konig, Thursday September 5, 2013
  5. ↑ Jones, Steve (18 May 2013). "Tour of California: NetApp's König climbs to stage seven victory, van Garderen stays strong in yellow". VeloNation. VeloNation LLC. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
  6. ↑ Willoughby, Ian (30 September 2014). "Czech cyclist König signs for Team Sky after coming seventh in Tour de France". Radio Prague. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  7. ↑ "Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana 2015: Results". 31 January 2015.
  8. ↑ Farrand, Stephen (24 May 2015). "Giro d'Italia: König takes over leadership at Sky as Porte loses 27 minutes". Cyclingnews.com. Future plc. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  9. ↑ Windsor, Richard (27 May 2015). "Team Sky's König among riders sanctioned after stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia". Cycling Weekly. IPC Media Sports & Leisure network. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  10. ↑ Wynn, Nigel (20 September 2016). "Leopold König moves from Team Sky to Bora-Hansgrohe". Cycling Weekly. Time Inc. UK. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
  11. ↑ Fletcher, Patrick (1 June 2017). "10 riders to watch at the Criterium du Dauphine". Cyclingnews.com. Immediate Media Company. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
  12. ↑ Ryan, Barry (13 December 2019). "König remains an enigma to end of Bora-Hansgrohe tenure". Cyclingnews.com. Future plc. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  13. ↑ "Leopold König". FirstCycling.com. FirstCycling AS. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
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