Despite being one of the best grand tour riders of his generation, Andreas Klöden had a low-key farewell to the sport, quietly announcing his retirement in late 2013. The German is happy with his career and continues to insist that he has nothing to do with the Freiburg doping affair.

With two second places in the Tour de France, wins in the Paris-Nice and the Tour of the Basque Country, Andreas Klöden is one of the best stage racers of the past decade. With a tainted relationship to the German press, the veteran was, however, never one to spend much time in the spotlight and he generally had a quiet career.

Hence, it was no surprise that there was no big spectacle when he announced his retirement. With a disappointing season behind him and no contract with the Trek team that took over the license from his Radioshack team, he quietly announced that he would not be back in the peloton in 2014.

However, the decision to stop was not a hasty one.

"I have been thinking about quitting in the past two years," he told Radsport-News in a lengthy interview. "Especially finding the motivation to go out for training time and time again was hard. The results that I imagined didn't happen and I didn't want to take the risks of bike races anymore. Furthermore the atmosphere within the team [Radioshack-Leopard] was not as good as it used to be after all that had happened."

Klöden may never have won a grand tour but he remains satisfied with his career.

"Actually, I am very satisfied with my career," he said. "I have had the possibility to do nice and big races and to win some of them. For this, I also have to thank my family and my sponsors that have supported me throughout my entire career. It is maybe a slight disappointment that I didn't win a grand tour even though I had the potential to do so."

While Klöden was never close to beating Lance Armstrong when he finished 2nd in the 2004 edition of the Tour, he had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in 2006. With the disqualification of Floyd Landis, he was suddenly promoted to 2nd and if his team had not allowed Oscar Pereiro to take back 30 minutes from a breakaway, he would have been the second German Tour winner in history.

"In hindsight, it would have been nice [to chase down the breakaway]," he said. "But that is bike racing, you have to make the decisions quickly and we made the ones we did. And you could not expect that a rider like Pereiro who had already lost almost half an hour in the mountans, suddenly could follow the best in the mountains in the final week."

No one doubts that Klöden had the potential to be a leader but he spent most of his career riding in service of riders like Jan Ullrich, Alexandre Vinokourov, Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong. However, he has no regrets.

"In hindsight, it would maybe have been better [to have been a leader] but whenever I had to make a decision to change my team, my advisors and I have not found any better possibilities or teams where it would really have been beneficial. It is not only the financial aspect, you also need to feel well in a team. Otherwise, you can't perform at your highest level."

In 2008 Patrik Sinkewitz accused Klöden and Matthias Kessler for having undergone a blood transfusion at the Freiburg University Clinic shortly before the 2006 Tour de France. A subsequent investigation stated that it was a certainty that Klöden had doped at the clinic.

He has always denied all claims and paid an unspecified amount to a children's charity to bring an end the investigation. However, he still insists that he has not been involved in any illegal practices.

"I can only repeat that I have nothing to do with this case," he said. "Why can't these things be treated like with normal people? When something was wrong, they could have suspended me. But they didn't because there was no proof and nothing was happening there.

"I did pay to make sure that this case wouldn't obstruct my career any longer. It was a tough mental burden. I understand why the doubts remain when you know the history of the sport but I can't change that so won't bother with it."

Klöden has been at loggerheads with both the German federation and press but he rues the actual situation in German cycling. Due to the many doping suspicions, there are no longer any German teams on the WorldTour and most German races have disappeared. Despite winning a time trial world championships, Tony Martin was only 10th in the vote for sportsman of the year.

"We can keep talking about this era for a long time," Klöden said. "It was not a nice time. But I'd like that we could just leave the subject so we can give the attention to younger riders like Tony Martin and Marcel Kittel. And that they can enjoy their fantastic efforts. If Tony Martin becomes world champion, people have doubts. When someone else in another sports becomes world champion everybody cheers and nobody doubts. If you think cheating only happens in cycling, you are a dreamer and not objective."

Klöden doesn't rule out that he will return to the sport in a new capacity but for now he is just enjoying not to have to go through all the rigours of winter preparation.

"I am content with my career," he said. "I love the sport and can see myself coming back with a team to teach young riders tactically and about training methods. But for the first time, I will spend the summer holidays together with my family. That hasn't been possible throughout my entire career."

Klöden's final race was the USA Pro Challenge in August.