Australia’s Rogers will ride with Brad Wiggins at British team, according to Italian press
Former time trial World Champion Michael Rogers will, according to Italy’s website TuttoBici, ride for Great Britain’s team Sky next year.
The 30-year-old has spent the last five years with HTC Columbia. He planned to leave Bob Stapleton’s American team at the end of this season, and had been linked with teams Geox (with Carlos Sastre and Denis Menchov) and Fly V Australia (with Robbie McEwen).
Rogers won the Tour of California and Vuelta a Andalucía stage race this year, and finished second overall at the Critérium International and third overall at the Tour de Romandie stage races. He won the time trial World Championships three times and in 2006, he placed ninth at the Tour de France behind winner Oscar Pereiro.
This year, Rogers finished 37th overall and said that he will give up his dream of winning the race.
“I will concentrate on the shorter stage races, I think. Races of one week,” said Rogers in July. “I tried everything this year but I have to accept the fact that I don’t recover in that last week like some of the other guys do.”
Rogers will help Sky’s push at the Tour de France. This year the team made its debut in cycling and aimed to win the race with Brit Brad Wiggins. Wiggins placed fourth last year behind Spain’s Alberto Contador, but this year suffered and only managed a 24th place.
This week at the Tour of Britain, Sky’s team manager David Brailsford promised changes in the team after a hard Tour de France.
According to news reports, Brailsford will sign Brit Alex Dowsett from Lance Armstrong’s Trek-LiveStrong team.