The final stage of the 2018 Tirreno-Adriatico could have been the last race of Leopold Koenig's career, but if it was, he's not saying anything. Czech publications have reported in recent weeks that he will not be returning to the peloton, but Koenig, a mystery to the end, has declined their repeated requests for comment.

But his tenure at Bora-Hansgrohe has certainly come to an end. His three-year contract was due to expire at the end of this month, but at a team presentation in Bayern last week, coach Ralf Denk admitted that Koenig, who just turned 32, is not on the 2020 roster.

"I really don't have any information," Denk told Cycling News. 'He informed me in mid-2018 that he was sick and couldn't ride. I told him, 'If you're ready to race, come back to me. But in the end, he never told me, 'I want to race again. And now his contract is over and he is free, but I don't know if he has retired."

Koenig spent four seasons with Denk's team, which was active as NetApp, winning a stage at the 2013 Vuelta a España and finishing seventh overall at the Tour de France the following year. These successes led to a move to Team Sky in 2015, where he finished sixth overall in the Giro d'Italia and helped Chris Froome win the Tour.

A persistent knee injury ruined his second season with Sky and he returned to Denk's team in 2017, by which time the team had rebranded to Bora-Hansgrohe and stepped up to the World Tour level. It was a troubling homecoming. The same knee injury from his Sky days kept Koenig away from the Giro and Vuelta, and he raced only 20 days in 2017.

Koenig expressed optimism at the beginning of the following season, saying he intended to compete in the Giro and Tour, but his 2018 campaign was short-lived. After completing one leg of the Challenge Mallorca, he abandoned the Tirreno-Adriatico on the final stage and did not wear the colors of Bora-Hansgrohe again.

He remained on the Bora-Hansgrohe roster for the 2019 campaign, but was never seen at a race or team gathering. Denk declined to comment on whether Koenig was still being paid by the team during that period. 'He was still on the team's roster,' he said. 'I won't comment financially, but he was on the team and if he could race, he could contact me.'

Knee and back problems were reportedly the cause of Koenig's abandonment at Tirreno in 2018, but the exact reason for his eventual withdrawal from Bora-Hansgrohe and from pro cycling overall remains unclear.

"First of all, he had a knee injury. When he came to the team in 2017, it wasn't really easy for him to reach the level he needed to be on the World Tour," Denk said. 'Then we don't know what the ultimate issue was with him quitting cycling or not racing in 2019. I'll have to ask him to find out." He said.

Koenig once had a large presence on social media, commenting on political and social issues in the Czech Republic as well as his own career. For example, he was critical of the country's populist president, Milos Zeman, and encouraged young people to vote in the presidential election held in early 2018. However, Koenig stopped posting on Twitter and Instagram in March 2018, just before his last appearance at Bora-Hansgrohe.

Since then, there has been only silence. No more training photos from his base in Monaco, no more updates on his race program. There has been no communication at all with the public, the media, or Bora Hansgrohe.

"He has been betrayed by his health. Otherwise, he might have been elsewhere," said one unnamed rider in a recent profile of Koenig on the Czech version of the Welovecycling website. 'But in the end, his head betrayed him. "

"Koenig wanted to end as king," the article's headline said, "and leave without fanfare or words."