After 10 years of trying, Michael Rogers finally won a Tour de France stage and with it came redemption for the Australian.
In his 10th Tour, the wily veteran stole a march on his four escape companions to solo to victory after a monumental 237.5km stage from Carcassonne to Bagneres-de-Luchon, France, on Tuesday — a success that came just three months after he was absolved of doping by the International Cycling Union.
“You dream of winning a stage of the Tour de France since you’re a kid. This was my 10th Tour, that makes 205 stages I’ve been without a win,” the 34-year-old triple world time trial champion said. “It’s amazing, I can’t describe the joy I felt in the last 500m when I knew I was going to win. I hope I don’t have to wait another 10 years to feel that again.”
Photo: AFP
Six months ago, Rogers did not even know if his career was over after he tested positive for the banned stimulant clenbuterol at the Japan Cup in October last year and was provisionally suspended.
The union accepted his plea that he had inadvertently ingested the substance and cleared him of any wrong-doing, but he lost his Japan Cup victory as he had won it with the stimulant in his system.
He was only cleared to race again in April, but a month later, won his first-ever Grand Tour stage when he managed two stage wins at May’s Giro d’Italia and has now added a victory at the Tour, helped by a time of reflection during his break from the sport.
Photo: Reuters
“I think I’m smarter now, certainly I realized you have to be in it to win it,” he said. “Previously I was too calculated and scared of the outcome before it arrived.”
Rogers admitted that he may never have had the chance to win on Tuesday had it not been for the fractured shinbone Alberto Contador, leader of his Tinkoff-Saxo team, suffered when he crashed on the 10th stage.
The Spaniard left the Tour at the end of the first week with a broken shinbone after hitting the deck hard on a fast descent and yesterday ruled out competing in next month’s Vuelta a Espana.
Photo: AFP
“Bad day today. The healing of the wound is getting complicated... Goodbye to the Vuelta,” Contador wrote in Spanish and English on Twitter.
He does not need surgery on his fractured tibia and in a second tweet thanked doctors in Madrid’s Cemtro Clinic for their treatment.
Rogers said he would have still been working for his teammate and hopefully helping him challenge runaway leader Vincenzo Nibali had Contador still been around.
Asked if he would have won the stage, Rogers said bluntly: “Probably not. I’d like to think I would have been really tired by now because I’d have ridden so much on the front with the yellow jersey.”
“I’m not going to say Alberto would’ve won easily because Nibali’s in the form of his life, but I think it would’ve been an incredible battle,” Rogers said.
“Alberto is already thinking about next year’s race. I can be grateful, but also heartbroken Alberto’s not here because I think it would’ve been something special and we’d have had to fight every day back in the peloton,” the Australian added.
Despite their overall hopes ending when Contador left the race, Tinkoff have managed two stage victories, while young Pole Rafal Majka, who won Sunday’s Alpine 15th stage, took the polka-dot king-of-the-mountains jersey on Tuesday.
“It was tough for those four or five days after Alberto left, but there was no plan B, [so] we made a new plan A,” Rogers said. “We have great leaders in [owner] Oleg [Tinkov] and [manager] Bjarne [Riise], who empowered us and we took stock and got new objectives.”
“If we do win another stage it will be a bonus, but Majka’s now in the mountain jersey. If we do win another we can be content, but we can also be content if we arrive in Paris with two victories,” he added.
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