Rogers pleased for Giro-leading teammate

While Lance Armstrong was under no illusions whether a maglia rosa would be waiting for him in San Martino di Castrozza he was certain who would be in the mix in stage four. "I'm not ready," he said but predicted that, "It will either be Michael Rogers, Damiano Cunego or Danilo Di Luca."

He was almost right: had it not been for an incident involving Rogers and Cunego, Thomas Lövkvist would have been second behind his Australian Columbia-Highroad team-mate.

Rogers made no secret of his irritation with Cunego in the finale, however. He lost time over the closing metres of the stage when he was caught behind Cunego, who had unclipped whilst going for the win.

"Cunego should be careful," Rogers told Cyclingnews of the Italian's dangerous move that caused the incident. "I went straight into his back and I lost 15 metres. I'm a bit disappointed to lose a couple of seconds this way but that's cycling."

Rogers remained calm and maintained perspective on the incident. "I'm happy that the jersey goes to Thomas Lövkvist. It might be a good thing that I don't have it for now," he said. "It's a good day for the team anyway; we've raced in the front with no problem when it was hard but it's gonna be even harder tomorrow."