Griffith local Rogers won three consecutive world championships in the time trial from 2003-2005, the bleach blonde look of the youngest rider to ever win the gold medal in the elite men's a far cry from the more mature Rogers acting in an ambassadorial role for the UCI event in Wollongong.
SBS Sport caught up with Rogers in the slip stream road for the riders to pull off after their time trial, with Rogers expressing admiration for the athletes on show.
"It's nice to be close to the athletes and amidst all the hype, it's work," Rogers said. "But it's also a pleasure to be around some of the top athletes in the world."
The sport of cycling has gone a long way since Rogers retired in 2016, further still since Rogers was a regular at the top of the leaderboard in the time trials.
"I think they're very different athletes," Rogers said of today's riders.
"They're a lot more advanced with their technology, equipment and aerodynamics, and things like nutrition and training strategies. I think the sport has evolved in a huge way in the last few years, particularly the last ten years.
"It's an interesting question where I'd sit now amongst this field with my performances back when I was winning world championships... I think I'd be out of the top ten now," laughed Rogers, half-jokingly.
Whether that is true is questionable with Rogers beating the best riders of his day, including winning comprehensively by a minute and 12 seconds in the 2004 TT.
Now in his post-professional racing career, Rogers joined the sport when Australia was, in his own words, "a peripheral country".
Now, he stands at the heart of Wollongong as the attention of the cycling world turns to Australia for one of the biggest events of the year.
"It's a magnificent feeling, obviously a wonderful day in Wollongong, a wonderful course and a star-studded field," Rogers said. "First and foremost, I hope the Illawarra community understand how big an event that they have here.
"We have the best athletes in the world and it's not too often that these events leave Europe. So to have it here in New South Wales and the Illawarra region, I hope that's a bonus for the locals and they really take it onboard and embrace it."
