Rogers breaks seven year drought in Andalucia

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Overall race leader Michael Rogers (HTC - Columbia) on the podium.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)

Australia’s Michael Rogers has claimed his first stage race overall victory since 2003, holding on to a 19 second lead at the Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol. Rogers’ general classification victory in the Spanish race is his first since winning France’s Route du Sud in what was a successful 2003 season from the Canberra rider.

The victory is a boost for Rogers who has been hampered for much of the past three years by injury and illness. He crashed out of the 2007 Tour de France while leading the race on the road, breaking his collarbone which brought his season to an early end. Since then Rogers was struck down by the Epstien Barr virus not once but twice, as HTC-Columbia owner Bob Stapleton revealed at Tour Down Under this year.

Rogers has also enjoyed plenty of time trial success since winning the Deutschland Tour, Route du Sud and Tour de Belgium in 2003. He won the International Cycling Union (UCI) Time Trial World Championship later that year, although he wasn’t awarded the medal and jersey until 2004 after David Millar’s result was stripped following an admission to doping. That meant Rogers collected two medals in 2004 as he won the title again, a feat he repeated in 2005.

Stapleton told Cyclingnews that while Rogers is clearly a strong rider his value to the American ProTour team goes far beyond the results he achieves. “The thing with Michael is he’s got a lot of skills he brings to the team,” said Stapleton. “His experience, his trusted leadership is super important for our young riders. He brings more than just his results and with such a young team, I think that’s really essential. He really is a full leader in the team far beyond exactly what he might win.”