# Leopold König

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.

## 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.

### Team NetApp (2011–2014)

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.
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. König achieved his first podium place for the team, scoring third place at the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana. 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. On Stage 16 featuring the Mortirolo Pass, König was docked 10 seconds for holding onto cars. 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. In the first half of the 2017 season, König only competed in two races due to injury. 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.

## Major results

Source:

### 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 |
| Giro d'Italia | — | — | 6 | — |
| Tour de France | — | 7 | 70 | — |
| Vuelta a España | 9 | — | — | 29 |
Legend :
| — | Did not compete |
| DNF | Did not finish |