After failing to secure a contract for 2014, 32-year-old Brian Vandborg from Denmark has announced his retirement. He won his 2nd Danish time trial championship title in June this year while racing for Cannondale Pro Cycling.

“I would have liked to have ridden on for another year or two but the spark is not really there at the moment and eventually I felt like I’d had my time,” Vandborg told Veloropa.dk.

Vandborg turned professional in 2004 with Team CSC and stayed with Bjarne Riis’ team for 3 years, the highlight of his stint there was 4th place in the 2006 World Championship time trial. He moved to Discovery Channel but was forced to step down a level once the team disbanded at the end of the season. 

After a year with Team GLS, Vandborg came back to ProTour level in 2009 when he signed for Liquigas, where he stayed for two years before rejoining Riis at Saxo Bank for the 2011 campaign. After spending 2012 with SpiderTech-C10, Vandborg returned to the old Liquigas set-up, now known as Cannondale, at the start of this season.

Vandborg helped teammate Peter Sagan claim a second successive green jersey at the Tour de France and then finished his year on a solid note as part of Cannondale's 7th place result in the team time trial at the world championships in Florence. However, Cannondale opted not to renew Vandborg’s contract and with a number of teams disbanding at the end of the 2013 season, places at WorldTour level were at a premium for next season.

Vandborg has refused to rule out the possibility of lining up to defend his title at the Danish time trial championships next June, however, and admitted that he may take part in some races locally in 2014. “But that would be with the sole intention of building up to the Danish championships in June,” he said, according to Veloropa.