With nine Grand Tours appearances and three World Time Trial Championship titles in the bag, Michael Rogers deserves his status as one of the most successful and well-respected riders in the peloton.

A product of the Australian Institute of Sport, Rogers turned professional with Mapei in 2000 and two years later tasted his first major success at the Tour Down Under.

Further victories followed in 2003 at the Tours of Germany, Belgium and the Route du Sud, before he claimed the first of three consecutive rainbow jerseys in Hamilton, Canada.

After switching to T-Mobile in 2006, Rogers outlined his credentials as a Grand Tour contender with a top-10 finish in the Tour de France, and was in contention for the yellow jersey again in 2007 before breaking his collarbone on the descent of the Cormet de Roseland.

Numerous podium positions would follow in 2008 and 2009, and in 2010 he won the Tour of Andalucia before becoming the first non-American to triumph at the Tour of California.

Rogers joined Team Sky at the start of 2011 and although he contributed to no less than eight stage victories, illness kept him out of large parts of the season. The 32-year-old is confident he has put that behind him now though, and feels he has learned a lot from the experience.

He says: “It was certainly tough last season - it’s pretty hard to watch races on the TV. But on the flip side it gives you time to think and sometimes you see errors that you’ve made and see things where you can improve… and sometimes it's nice to notice things which you don’t always see when you are heavily involved.

“It’s also been interesting watching the team develop and progress. I wasn’t around the first year but I saw it from the outside and in my opinion the team has really pushed into second gear and now it’s time to move up to third. From a start-up team they’ve covered a lot of ground in two years; the base is there and now it’s time to really move on and accelerate.”