Risk vs gain

Since February, following a predictable, sprint-centric, second stage of the Dubai Tour, Rogers has been an ex-professional cyclist; an existence begun on the Mapei development team and ended by the sudden acceleration of an innocuous heart condition that he had been aware of since his earliest days in the peloton.

He explains: “If you look into the Wikipedia side, about my particular issue, it’s in your mid-30s that it really drops off a cliff, right? Maybe dropping off a cliff is not the right word to use, but it starts to become more important, and that’s what it’s really all about: the balance between risk and gain.

Calling time on a 16-year career became a logical decision, if not an easy one. Rogers did not start stage three in Dubai, but what might have been a painful end to a career he had pursued for his entire adult life was eased with a job offer – from Saxo Bank co-founder Lars Seier and former team boss Bjarne Riis.

“I’m thankful for this new job here because literally the day after, it’s a true story, Lars and Bjarne called me and said, ‘We’ve got a project for you to do’. I was grateful for that,” Rogers says.

Virtu Pro-Veloconcept

The ‘project’ has become Virtu Pro-Veloconcept and in May Rogers was announced as its CEO. The company has developed a sophisticated static training bike, an accompanying app and offers a luxury base in Lucca for business hospitality.

Things are moving quickly. Virtu Pro-Veloconcept has already acquired a Danish team registered in professional cycling’s third tier, and the ambition is that business activities will ultimately fund a WorldTour squad.

Rogers is sanguine. Professional cycling’s total dependence on corporate largesse has long been recognised as its Achilles heel, but few have been able to suggest an alternative method of generating funding for a sport that is free to spectators at the roadside. The Riis-Seier project is an attempt to square the circle.

“It will take us a long time, but who knows, in 20 years, what we’re trying to do now may be the foundation of all cycling teams,” Rogers says. “We don’t know, but we’re willing to try.”

Rogers says he misses none of the physical demands of professional cycling, but does miss the camaraderie of his former team-mates and directors, a group he describes as a “high energy” bunch of people.

Conferences in financial centres are unlikely to offer the same adrenalin rush as winning atop the Zoncolan, as Rogers did at the 2014 Giro d’Italia, or receiving rainbow jerseys. On the plus side, he is no longer required to train in the cold and sleet, to miss social functions or time with his family.

His role at the head of an organisation trying to change the game on the funding of pro cycling teams has been hard-earned. Still lean, he is unlikely to be planning to make a comeback any time soon, however.

“I see the mountain stages and for me that’s just another life, already. I look at that and just say, ‘No way!’”