“I want my team to be the best… but I still smile when INEOS win” – Luke Rowe admits to Geraint Thomas lingering ties despite Decathlon role

For Luke Rowe, the Tour Down Under did more than open the 2026 WorldTour season. It quietly underlined how difficult it is to ever fully detach from a team that shaped almost an entire professional life.

Now working with Decathlon CMA CGM Team, Rowe joined long-time friend and former team-mate Geraint Thomas on the latest episode of Watts Occurring to reflect on a race that delivered extreme heat, disrupted stages, a kangaroo collision and a series of British sprint victories. Yet amid all that chaos, it was a candid admission about INEOS that lingered longest.

Rowe spent his entire racing career inside the Sky and INEOS system before stepping into a rival role. Watching the Tour Down Under unfold from the other side of the fence has not erased those instincts. “I was at Sky and INEOS a long time, and I want my team to be the best team in the world at Decathlon,” Rowe said. “But still, when INEOS win, I still have a smile. It’s my second favourite team.”

Thomas immediately understood the feeling. Between them, the pair represent more than two decades inside the same environment, the same buses, the same unwritten rules of the peloton. Changing employers does not rewrite that history overnight. “There’s always guys that you like, that you know a bit in other teams,” Thomas replied. “You know what they’re like and you want to see them do well.”

The Tour Down Under, with its blend of low-pressure racing and familiar faces, proved the perfect setting for those emotions to surface.

From the opening days in Australia, Rowe and Thomas framed the Tour Down Under as a race that rewards adaptability more than rigid planning. Heat warnings shortened stages, crosswinds reshaped expectations and general classification ambitions were derailed before they could properly settle.

“What should have been wasn’t,” Rowe said when reflecting on stage four. “The day that I thought Johnny would take some time bonuses and take the lead, I couldn’t have been more wrong.”

Early crashes and the removal of key sections due to fire risk forced teams to improvise. UAE, in particular, endured a difficult run through the week. “They had a stinker,” Rowe said. “There was some bad luck there.”

Even with those disruptions, the race delivered moments that reminded both hosts why the Tour Down Under remains a valuable season opener. Riders were forced to react in real time, not hide behind calculations. “In a reduced sprint down under, which isn’t the same level as a Paris or a Tour de France, you have to race the race for what it is,” Rowe explained. “They executed it brilliantly.”

That willingness to commit was most evident in the sprint stages, where British riders dominated the results despite the unpredictable conditions.

Sam Welsford’s victory stood out not just for the result, but for how it was achieved. The lead-out unfolded from deep in the bunch, requiring perfect timing rather than textbook positioning. “To play devil’s advocate, if they tried that 20 times, the stars would line up maybe five times,” Rowe said. “But to do world-class lead-outs now, you also have to risk and gamble.”

The execution, rather than the outcome alone, impressed both hosts. Rowe found himself particularly pleased for riders he has known for years. “I was more happy for Swifty than I was for Sam,” he admitted. “To see him still performing at that level, still giving a world-class lead-out, still timing it to perfection, it was fantastic.”

Thomas highlighted how trust inside the lead-out train can override panic in moments where the race appears lost. “He said they were stuck in the back with about a kilometre to go and thought it was over,” Thomas recalled. “But having someone like that there, you just put all your confidence in them.”

Those instincts, honed inside the INEOS system, still resonated with Rowe as he watched from a different team environment.

If the Tour Down Under delivered an image that travelled far beyond cycling circles, it came on the Stirling circuit. A kangaroo strayed into the race, triggering a crash that involved Jay Vine and left the peloton shaken. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but the kangaroo just bounced into the peloton and caused a crash,” Thomas said.

Rowe’s reply captured the surreal nature of the incident. “Old Skippy caused carnage. You can’t get more down under than that, can you?”

Footage showed the animal hobbling away, while Vine’s race ended with far more serious consequences. The incident became a talking point not because of novelty alone, but because it underscored the uncontrollable risks that remain in professional cycling. “It came right to left,” Rowe said. “Jay Vine was involved.”

The aftermath only deepened the sense of misfortune. “He broke his scaphoid and had an operation,” they added. “That bone has terrible blood flow. It takes ages to heal.”

For two riders who have both endured long injury recoveries, the moment carried a sobering edge beneath the humour.

Despite its reputation as a warm-weather curtain-raiser, Rowe was clear that the Tour Down Under still carries weight internally, especially for squads trying to build early momentum. “As a team, if you can go there and get something from it and come back and the whole team’s buzzing, it matters,” he said. “You felt it at camp, didn’t you?”

Thomas agreed, noting how results ripple through training camps thousands of miles away. “You wake up in the morning and hear there’s been a win,” he said. “Everyone’s buzzing from it. It gives you momentum.”

That perspective explains why Rowe found himself emotionally invested, even while watching successes from his former team.

The Tour Down Under, with its mixture of familiarity and freshness, stripped things back to basics. Riders raced instinctively, teams committed fully to opportunities, and old allegiances surfaced without warning.

For Rowe, the week in Australia reinforced a simple truth about life after racing. Changing colours does not erase relationships, memories or habits built over a decade.

In a sport obsessed with marginal gains and clean breaks, it was one of the most human moments of the opening WorldTour race.