Andreas Klöden (born 22 June 1975) is a German former professional

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most com ...

, who competed as a professional between 1998 and 2013. His major achievements include a bronze medal at the

2000 Olympic Games The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

and finishing second in the general classification at the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and

2006 Tour de France The 2006 Tour de France was the 93rd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours. It took place between the 1st and the 23rd of July. It was won by Óscar Pereiro following the disqualification of Floyd Land ...

. Klöden was a tall, lightly built racer with enough strength to place high in the overall classifications of the Grand Tours, but his performances were affected by injuries.

Biography

Klöden was born in Mittweida in 1975. Before he turned professional, he won the bronze medal in the Under 23 World

Time Trial In many racing sports, an sportsperson, athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial (TT) against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athle ...

Championships in 1996, and two stages at the International Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt in 1997.

The T-Mobile years (1998–2006)

Klöden signed with ' (later T-Mobile Team) in 1998, and in his first pro season he won the Niedersachsen-Rundfahrt's General classifications (GC) and the prologue of the Tour de Normandie. In 1999, he won a stage at the Portuguese Tour of Algarve. But the first of his great seasons came in 2000, where after notching two important victories in the GC of Paris–Nice and Tour of the Basque Country, he went on to obtain the bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, after fellow German

Jan Ullrich Jan Ullrich (; born 2 December 1973) is a German former professional road bicycle racer. Ullrich won gold and silver medals in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Sydney. He won the 1999 Vuelta a España and the HEW Cyclassics in fro ...

and Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov, two riders with whom he would spend several seasons on T-Mobile. After that came three injury plagued seasons in which he gained no victories. He was forced to abandon the 2003 Tour de France due to a fractured

tailbone The coccyx (: coccyges or coccyxes), commonly referred to as the tailbone, is the final segment of the vertebral column in all apes, and analogous structures in certain other mammals such as horses. In tailless primates (e.g. humans and other ...

. 2004 saw his cycling rebirth as he won the German National

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Championships and so continued T-Mobile/Team Telekom's winning streak, which went back to Bernd Gröne's 1993 win of these Championships. Klöden held his great moment of form until the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a ...

, which began one week later. In that Tour, which he began as a domestique for Ullrich, he did not win any stage but finished second overall after taking second place from Italian Ivan Basso in the final time trial. Ullrich, whom Klöden was supposed to be supporting, finished fourth that year, the only time he finished outside the top three in the Tour de France. Finishing ahead of Ullrich brought Klöden international fame and rumours circulated that he was moving to or , where he would have led the team, but instead he stayed at T-Mobile with Ullrich. In the 2005 season he won a stage at the Bayern-Rundfahrt. Klöden as well as teammates Ullrich and Vinokourov were considered among the challengers for the

2005 Tour de France The 2005 Tour de France was the 92nd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours. It took place between 2–24 July, with 21 stages covering a distance . It has no overall winner—although American cyclist ...

overall victory, with Ullrich as the strongest bid. Klöden contributed to the team success of T-Mobile in the race that saw Ullrich finish 3rd and Vinokourov finish fifth. On stage 8 in the Vosges Mountains, he attacked halfway up the final climb of the day and eventually took the K.O.M. points, catching breakaway leader Pieter Weening right at the summit. On the way down to the finish in Geradmer, he lost the sprint finish in the closest Tour de France finish of all time – (9.6 millimetres or 0.0002 secs) until stage 7 of the 2017 Tour de France when Marcel Kittel beat Edvald Boasson Hagen ( 4.0 millimetres or 0.00003 secs). Later, he withdrew from the Tour at stage 17 into Revel, having crashed during the 16th stage and fracturing a bone in his right wrist. In the Tour of 2006, Klöden became one of the favorites for the overall victory when Ullrich, Vinokourov and Basso did not start. Vinokourov did not participate because of his teammates doping scandal, which caused his Astana team to fall below the minimum six riders to start. After somewhat weak performances in the first mountain stages, Klöden was in good shape in the Alps, climbing in the overall ranking. Klöden was very strong in the closing time trial where he finished second after his teammate

Serhiy Honchar Serhiy Gonchar (; born 3 July 1970) is a Ukrainian former professional road racing cyclist. He won the World Time Trial Championship in 2000. Due to a temporary spelling error in his passport, he is often incorrectly called Honchar. Career G ...

, climbing from fourth to the third place in the general classification over Carlos Sastre. On stage 11 to the Pla D'Beret, Klöden was dropped by the leading group and lost about 1:30mins, which cost him dearly. On Stage 15, he performed strongly, dropping everyone, except eventual overall winner Floyd Landis. On Stage 16, Kloden again performed well, finishing fourth on the stage, however on stage 17, he again cracked on the Col de Joux Plane, but recovered on the descent, thanks mainly to the help given to him by teammate Patrik Sinkewitz.

The Astana years (2007–2009)

On 27 August 2006, Klöden announced that he would ride for in the 2007 season, although Alexander Vinokourov was the team captain. This announcement came as something of a surprise to the cycling community because Klöden, despite his talent and accomplishments, would almost certainly not be the leader of that team, which was organized around Vinokourov. During the Tour de France, he rode well, but had to help Astana captain Vinokourov, and lost a few minutes. An accident almost saw the repeat of his 2003 Tour injury, but this time the injury to the coccyx was just a hairline fracture and he was able to continue. Astana formally withdrew from the

2007 Tour de France The 2007 Tour de France the 94th running of Tour de France, the race, took place from 7 to 29 July. The Tour began with a prologue in London, and ended with the traditional finish in Paris. Along the way, the route also passed through Belgium and ...

on 24 July, when Vinokourov's doping test was found to be positive. His racing in September was interrupted by injury, following an accident while out training when a car crossed his path forcing him to swerve, Klöden ended up in a ditch. Although an X-ray showed no broken bones, he missed the GP de Plouay and the Tour of Poland. His 2008 season was uneventful in grand tours though he won the Tour of Romandie that year and he came second in the Tour de Suisse. His 2009 Tour de France was mainly serving as a domestique for Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong though after stage 15 Kloden sat 4th overall. Kloden's podium chances closed in however on stage 17 when his teammate Alberto Contador put in a controversial attack dropping Kloden allowing the Andy and Fränk Schleck to gain over 2 minutes over him. He would later end up finishing 6th overall that year though he would end up moving into 5th overall after Lance Armstrong's titles were stripped. On 2 October 2009 it was confirmed that Klöden would join for the 2010 season

2009 Doping allegations

In 2009 allegations emerged claiming that Andreas Klöden used the Freiburg University Clinic for an illegal

blood transfusion Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's Circulatory system, circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used ...

during the

. Later, Kloden and others of the T-Mobile Team, Matthias Kessler and Patrick Sinkewitz were confirmed by Freiberg doctors to have blood doped at the university during the

where their blood was held. Under investigation Kloden made an agreement with german prosecutors to pay a sum to charity in return for the investigation being dropped. At his retirement, Klöden denied that he ever used doping. He said he had made an agreement with prosecutors to stop the investigation because he felt that the investigation hindered his career.

The Team Radioshack Years (2010–2011)

Klöden had an uneventful 2010 season. He finished the 2010 Tour de France in 14th place 16’36" behind Contador. Contador was later disqualified, resulting in a 13th place 15'57' behind Andy Schleck. His other biggest finishes were 8th in Tour de Suisse and Eneco Tour. 2011 saw a rebirth of Klöden's career when he won the 2011 Tour of the Basque Country while also finished 2nd in Paris–Nice and getting a stage victory. He also had 2 ITT victories in Giro del Trentino and Critérium International. He carried his good form into the 2011 Tour de France but crashed and had to withdraw because of two crashes that injured his back. He later entered the Vuelta as co-leader with Brajkovic but withdrew.

RadioShack-Nissan (2012–2013)

In 2012, Klöden signed with RadioShack-NissanTrek. He finished the

2012 Tour de France The 2012 Tour de France was the 99th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours. It started in the Belgian city of Liège on 30 June and finished on the Champs-Élysées stage in the Tour de France, Champs ...

in 11th place, 17'54" behind Wiggins. He also finished 4th in the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. Klöden continued to ride for Radioshack in 2013. He finished 9th in both the 2013 Volta ao Algarve and 2013 Paris–Nice early on in the season. His first top five finish came in the 2013 Tour of Belgium, where he finished fourth. He lost time early on in the Pyrenees in the 2013 Tour de France, forcing him to switch his goals from the general classification to stage wins. He made the breakaway on stage 16 to Gap, finishing in fifth place. He tried his luck again on stage 19 to Le Grand-Bornand. After finishing second there in the 2004 Tour de France behind

Lance Armstrong Lance Edward Armstrong (''né'' Gunderson; born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist. He achieved international fame for winning the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times fro ...

; he finished second again, this time after Rui Costa who had also won the stage to Gap. He finished the Tour in 30th place, 1h02'43" behind winner Chris Froome. In October 2013, Klöden announced his retirement from cycling after a sixteen-year professional career.

Career achievements

Major results

;1996 : 3rd Bronze medal uci

Time trial In many racing sports, an sportsperson, athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial (TT) against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athle ...

, UCI Road World Under-23 Championships ;1997 : 1st Prologue & Stage 7b Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt : 1st Stage 3 Flèche du Sud : 1st Stage 4 Commonwealth Bank Classic : 7th

, UCI Road World Under-23 Championships : 7th

HEW Cyclassics The Hamburg Cyclassics (currently known as the Bemer Cyclassics for sponsorship purposes) is an annual one-day professional and amateur road bicycle race, cycling race in and around Hamburg, Germany. Although the route varies, its distance is alw ...

: 9th Overall Circuit Cycliste Sarthe ;1998 : 1st Overall

Niedersachsen Rundfahrt The Internationale Niedersachsen–Rundfahrt is a stage race, multi-stage road bicycle racing, road bicycle race held in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was first held in 1977 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. ...

::1st Stage 3a : 1st Prologue Tour de Normandie ;1999 : 1st Stage 3 Volta ao Algarve : 5th Overall Regio-Tour ;2000 : 1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country ::1st Stage 5b : 1st Overall Paris–Nice ::1st Stage 7 : 1st Stage 7 Peace Race : 2nd Overall Deutschland Tour : 2nd Overall Danmark Rundt : 3rd Bronze medal olympic

Road race,

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

: 3rd Overall Regio-Tour : 5th EnBW GP : 5th Overall Setmana Catalana ;2001 : 5th EnBW GP : 8th Grand Prix Eddy Merckx ;2002 : 2nd Overall Regio-Tour : 5th Overall Sachsen Tour ;2003 : 4th Overall Critérium International : 7th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico ;2004 : 1st Road race, National Road Championships : 2nd Overall

: 2nd Overall Bayern Rundfahrt : 6th La Flèche Wallonne : 6th Overall Deutschland Tour ;2005 : 1st Stage 5 Bayern Rundfahrt ;2006 : 1st Overall Regio-Tour ::1st Stage 4 : 2nd Overall

;2007 : 1st Overall Tirreno–Adriatico : 1st Overall Circuit Cycliste Sarthe ::1st Stage 2 : 5th Overall Critérium International : 5th Overall Bayern Rundfahrt : 10th Overall Tour de Suisse ;2008 : 1st Overall

Tour de Romandie The Tour de Romandie is a stage race which is part of the UCI World Tour. It runs through the Romandie region, or French-speaking part of Switzerland. The competition began in 1947, to coincide with the 50-year anniversary of Swiss Cycling. It ...

::1st Stage 3 : 2nd Overall Tour de Suisse : 8th Overall Volta ao Algarve ;2009 : 1st Stage 1 (ITT) Giro del Trentino : 2nd Overall Tour de Luxembourg : 3rd Overall Tirreno–Adriatico ::1st Stage 5 : 4th Overall Tour de Suisse : 5th Overall

::1st Stage 4 (TTT) : 5th Overall Volta ao Algarve ;2010 : 4th Overall

Vuelta a Murcia The Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia () is a road bicycle race held in and around Murcia, Spain. The first four editions were reserved to amateurs. Originally the race was held in early March and consisted of five stages. However, due to Spain's fina ...

: 8th Overall Tour de Suisse : 8th Overall Eneco Tour : 8th Overall Volta ao Algarve : 8th Overall Tour de Luxembourg ;2011 : 1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country ::1st Points classification : 1st Stage 3 (ITT) Critérium International : 1st Stage 1 (ITT) Giro del Trentino : 2nd Overall Paris–Nice ::1st Stage 5 : 5th Overall Volta ao Algarve ;2012 : 4th Overall USA Pro Cycling Challenge ;2013 : 4th Overall Tour of Belgium : 9th Overall Volta ao Algarve : 9th Overall Paris–Nice

General classification results timeline

References

External links

*
Andreas Klöden on the Homepage of his Team Radioshack
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kloden, Andreas 1975 births Living people People from Mittweida Cyclists from Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt German male cyclists Doping cases in cycling Olympic cyclists for Germany Cyclists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Cyclists at the 2004 Summer Olympics German cycling road race champions Olympic bronze medalists for Germany Olympic bronze medalists in cycling Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics 21st-century German sportsmen 20th-century German sportsmen