Tinkoff's Michael Rogers has called an end to his career as a professional cyclist, making the announcement via an open letter on Twitter today.
The 36-year-old suffers from a congenital heart defect, and his condition began to deteriorate last year, forcing him to skip first the Tour Down Under and then abandon the Dubai Tour.
Rogers had a long history at the top of cycling, beginning with the Australian junior time trial championship in 1996 at age 16. The next year he won two junior track world titles, the points race and team pursuit, and followed that up the next year with a Commonwealth Games gold medal in the scratch race.
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Rogers was second to José Iván Gutiérrez in the U23 time trial world championship in 1999, and then third behind Evgeni Petrov and Fabian Cancellara in 2000. He was signed as a trainee for Mapei-Quickstep in 2001 and then brought on as a neo-pro.
Rogers spent five full seasons with Patrick Lefevere's QuickStep squad, winning the Tour Down Under overall in 2002 and the Tour of Belgium in 2003 before claiming silver at the World Time Trial Championships that year.
He followed in 2004 with fourth place in the Olympic Games time trial, but was elevated to bronze after the disqualification of American winner Tyler Hamilton for blood doping. Rogers went on to crush the World Championship time trial that year, beating German Michael Rich and Alexander Vinokourov by more than a minute. Following the disqualification of David Millar for doping from the 2003 World Championships, Rogers was also awarded the gold medal for the previous year.
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