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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Rowe said the reality is brutally simple. \u201cAny rider who has crashed and is not seriously hurt, is stood up, and they’re on their bike, and if their bike is ok, they’re gone. So, by the time you pass the crash, any rider who is still here is hurt. And it’s like, that’s someone’s son, husband\u2026 whoever it is, you’re like \u2018that’s a poor guy and he is in a lot of pain.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He admitted that nothing prepared him for the suffering he now witnesses up close, even if he endured that personally whilst he was on the bike. \u201cI never thought about that, and as you\u2019re driving through, you\u2019re just seeing grown men, in a lot of pain, sometimes unconscious, bleeding, broken bones\u2026 that\u2019s the shit part.\u201d<\/p>\n
The contrast with the highs of racing is painful, a marked characteristic of cycling. \u201cWhen you’re racing, being part of guys winning races, it’s fantastic, it’s a success. But when you see that, it’s like that’s someone’s little boy down there and he is in a mess, and that’s the part that I hate.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Luke Rowe spent his entire career at Ineos, getting two professional wins<\/p>\n
A new motivation: ending a 34-year wait<\/p>\n
Despite the emotional challenges, Rowe has found real purpose in his new role. What drives him now is not survival in the peloton, but chasing a historic milestone for Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale: winning the team\u2019s first monument.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo two days are the same. It really does motivate me. I\u2019m very much in the Classics part of it,\u201d Rowe said. \u201cThe team has existed for 34 years and in the five monuments our best ever results are three second-places and two third-places. We have never won a monument, but that is super motivating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rowe said joining a new environment gave him the chance to contribute to something meaningful and make a much bigger impact than the one he thinks would have made staying at Ineos<\/a>. \u201cI could have gone to another team, stayed at Ineos… but if I could join this team and make a small, something difference to do some good things, and if we were to win a monument after five podiums in 34 years\u2026 to me, that just gets me out of bed in the morning.\u201dWhen asked what it would take for Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale to finally win a monument, Rowe said the team still needs to improve in many aspects, some more realistic than others. \u201cThere\u2019s a long list. There is equipment, recruitment is obviously the biggest one,\u201d he noted, joking, \u201cIf we could sign Mathieu van der Poel<\/a> tomorrow, we would have a very good chance of winning a monument. But that\u2019s the easy way, and that\u2019s the expensive way.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, Rowe prefers a systematic, gradual approach. \u201cTo me, it’s like we’re on a mission. When can we achieve this? How can we achieve this? And let\u2019s just slowly get there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rowe said the reality is brutally simple. \u201cAny rider who has crashed and is not seriously hurt,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,181809,42457,181808,10102,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-573223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-decathlon-ag2r-la-mondiale-team","10":"tag-ineos-grenadiers","11":"tag-luke-rowe","12":"tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115557025180303099","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}