Rogers expresses trust in Stapleton

By Susan Westemeyer

Michael Rogers was worried at first when he heard that Deutsche Telekom was cancelling its sponsorship of the T-Mobile Team, but the team captain has faith in the team owner and manager Bob Stapleton. "Bob has given us his word. I've known him for some time now and when he gives his word, that's what he does."

Interviewed in the Canberra Times, he said he was looking forward to the coming season with Team High Road. "We just hope there's no loss of valuable time. We've got the professionals around us and they're still very capable of doing their job under any conditions, so I'm quite confident and optimistic that we won't lose any of our advantage."

Rogers' contract expires in 2008, but he is not planning on looking for a new team. "It'd have to be quite a good offer for me to move on. I really like the way Bob and his team works. If they were to offer me a new contract tomorrow I'd take it very seriously and probably make the decision to stay," he said, but then qualified his statement. "It's maybe a bit premature though, we've got a year to go and the current situation of cycling isn't good, so we just have to see how things pan out during the year and I'm sure around about the Tour de France time I'd have made a decision."

The Australian said that he was not concerned about being linked to Patrik Sinkewitz' doping confession, especially after the UCI cleared him of involvement. "Unfortunately cycling is almost in an environment where we're all considered guilty until proven innocent, and we all have to expect that kind of thing. I'm not the first rider to be in the press rumoured to be involved in certain practices and I won't be the last."