Revived after three of the biggest stage wins of his career in 2014, stage victories at the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, Rogers is kick-starting his 2015 season from Canberra before he contests January's Australian road championships and the Tour Down Under.

Having left Canberra at 17 to pursue his career in Europe, Rogers turns 35 on Saturday. But he has re-signed with Alberto Contador's super team, Tinkoff-Saxo, for the next two years and is refusing to slow down as his career comes to a close.

"I really wanted to come down [to Australia] and take advantage of the good weather, the last couple of years has been a slog getting into condition," said Rogers, who is now based in Switzerland and last came to Australia in the summer of 2011-12.

"I'm getting to the stage of my career where getting into condition takes a lot longer than it used to, but the other side of the coin is it lasts a lot longer. So I'm back in training full-bore, ramping it up."

In the past two weeks Rogers has been reacquainting himself with his old Canberra training routes, riding at the Narrabundah Velodrome, the Criteriums at Stromlo Forest and repeats up Black Mountain.

"My record was 10 as a kid," Rogers said of consecutive Black Mountain climbs.

"I'm a bit faster now than I was then, but they're still very challenging rides around Canberra, very undulating and tough road surfaces ... it's so intense just riding."

The Australian heat is a stark contrast to the minus-25 degrees celsius Rogers experienced standing at the 5895m peak of Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro last month.

It was a team building and bonding exercise for Tinkoff-Saxo, a test of mental strength more than physical endurance. The trek took five days.

"When we finally made it to the top, it was minus-25 and a lot of our equipment and clothing had got wet in those first few days, so it was tough going," Rogers said.

"The main reason we went there was the team boss wanted to see how people would react under such strenuous conditions and when you're really fatigued. You see straight away who the reliable ones are, the pillars are of the team and the not-so mentally strong. On that side of things, it was a very successful trip.

"About 70 per cent of the team made it to the top. I think I was the third to get to the top, you can only imagine who the winner was."

Contador, of course. While the Spanish cycling legend fractured his leg in a fall on this year's Tour de France, he returned to win a third Vuelta a Espana. A third yellow jersey for Contador at the Tour de France remains the team's ultimate goal, but Tinkoff-Saxo has also signed 24-year-old Slovak champion and three-times Tour de France green jersey winner Peter "The Tourminator" Sagan.

Rogers, who has ridden 10 Tours and was this year named in Australia's Tour de France team of the century, said it was a powerful combination, if they could all work together.

"On paper we've got one of the strongest teams in the peloton, but what we want to avoid is having a team full of champions that's not a champion team," Rogers said. "That's management's job to define the roles and goals of the individuals and as a team.

"What you do risk is going to the Tour de France and instead of focusing on one thing, which is the yellow jersey and doing it perfectly, we could find ourselves in a situation where there's too many goals and performing ordinarily."

Rogers will ride the Australian road championships in Ballarat from January 7-11, both the road race and the time trial, before backing up for the Tour Down Under in Adelaide from January 17-25.

A three-time world time trial champion from 2003-05, Rogers' only national title was in 2009 TT. He also won the 2002 Tour Down Under, but has curbed expectation this summer.

"I have to be aware that the younger Australian guys have been down here for a few months already and are a lot ahead in general condition. Of course I'd like to perform well, but I'm starting off a little bit slower than the others," Rogers said.

"The Tour Down Under is not a pure sprinter's race but guys like [defending champion] Simon Gerrans are a lot faster than me in those finishes and very punchy on those shorter climbs, in saying that I'd like to perform well."