Rogers extends Tinkoff-Saxo contract

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The 34-year-old agreed to an additional two years with Tinkoff-Saxo on Monday, which will see him stay with the joint Russian-Danish team until the end of 2016, as he looks to continue on from one of the most successful years of his career.

Rogers won two stages at the Giro d'Italia, just a month after returning to racing, following the dismissal of a doping ban from the end of 2013, while he claimed his first Tour de France stage win last month.

The signing of Rogers continues Tinkoff-Saxo's strong month since the Tour, with Peter Sagan having agreed to join the team from next year.

Former Russian national road race champion Pavel Brutt is set to join from Team Katusha in 2015, after also signing earlier this month, while Russian domestique Nikolay Trusov and Danish sprinter Matti Breschel have extended their contracts.

"He [Rogers] has been an essential part of our team this season and he first and foremost fits very well into the entire setup," Tinkoff-Saxo sporting director Bjarne Riis told the team's official website.

"He has the experience and strength to guide the team on the road as the extended arm of the sport director and he wins races like we've seen during the grand tours of this season. So it's very logical that we wish to continue."

Rogers' 2014 started badly with the Australian provisionally suspended at the end of last year for a positive doping test that found traces of the steroid Clenbuterol in his system.

He was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing after claiming he had ingested the drug after eating contaminated meat at the Tour of Beijing.

But Rogers has responded brilliantly and is looking forward to achieving even more in the coming years alongside the likes of Alberto Contador and Sagan.

"I'm very excited about extending," Rogers said.

"For the last two seasons and especially in 2014, I've felt that we've been on the verge of something very special as a team – I most definitely saw that during the Tour.

"I've always been a strong advocate of teamwork, and I think that's why I fit well into this team.

"We're able to perform with a big mix of riders and I enjoy being able to assist some of the younger guys with their development."

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