Having been regarded as one of the biggest German talents, Julian Kern has not been offered a pro contract after two years at the Ag2r-La Mondiale team. The 24-year-old German has now decided to end his career.

Julian Kern will hang up his bike. "Since my contract with the French Ag2r-La Mondiale expires at the end of the year and I have had no offers from a ProTour or Pro Continental team, I will end my career at the end of the 2014 season," the 24-year-old German said this afternoon in a press release.

After a successful year at the Luxembourgish Leopard team, Kern signed a professional contract for the 2013 season with the Ag2r team of Vincent Lavenu. In the last two years, his best results were 19th at the 2013 Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop and 22nd at the 2014 Eneco Tour. Furthermore, the stage race specialist was second in the mountains classification at this year's Bayern Rundfahrt. These results was obviously not enough to obtain a new contract offer from his team so Kern decided to retire.

"This step is not easy but it is definitely not the wrong one for me," the former U23 European champion and third in the 2012 German Championships wrote. "I look forward to a time with a more normal daily routine and at the same time I will miss the adventures and ups and fowns of professional sports."