Leopold König got a belated grand tour debut in this year's Vuelta a Espana where he put Team NetApp-Endura in the spotlight by taking a stage in the mountains and finish 9th overall. The Czech has made the 2014 Tour de France his next big goal and he expects his pro continental team to receive a wildcard invitation to the world's biggest bike race.

Leoplod König was expected to lead Team NetApp in the 2012 Giro d'Italia but an injury prevented the talented Czech from getting his grand tour debut in Italy. Instead, he had to wait until this year's Vuelta a Espana to finally get his chance in a three-week race.

König put his talents in the spotlight for a worldwide audience when he won the big mountain stage to Alto de Peñas Blancas and maintained his form all the way to end to finish 9th overall. Having also won the queen stage of the Tour of California, the Czech had an exceptional season that has boosted his confidence for the 2014 season.

Next year, König plans to shine on the biggest scene of them all as he hopes to lead NetApp-Endura in the Tour de France. To be at the start line in Yorkshire in July 2014, his team has to receive a wildcard invitation but he is confident that the many demises of big teams will allow his team to ride the biggest race in the world.

"Team Europcar will become a ProTeam and receive an automatic invitation," he told Idnes. "Sojasun disappears. Then one of the invitations will go to Cofidis and the three others will go to foreign teams. One of them has to be for us. But those are all speculations. I will have to wait until March or April [to get confirmation] but since October 1, my goal has been to prepare for the Tour."

Usually, the Tour de France organizers have four wildcards at their disposal and NetApp-Endura will find themselves up against teams like Cofidis, Colombia, Bretagne, IAM and possibly MTN-Qhubeka.

König will stay with NetApp-Endura in 2014 despite having received interest from four different ProTeams. He prefers to race for a team that can offer him a leadership role.

 "I got some extra money, but money is not everything for me," he said. "The important thing is that NetApp can make a guarantee me to be the leader in the Tour."

With his contract expiring at the end of 2014, König expects to consider the proposals again next year and makes it clear that he prefers to race for an English-speaking team.