"I would go out of my way to let them know they weren't welcome": Luke Rowe admits he used to bully convicted dopers in peloton
Cycling
Doping left a permanent mark on cycling and even though in recent years there haven't been more than individual cases at the highest level, it's still a topic that hits headlines from time to time. But back when Luke Rowe made a professional debut in early 2010s, the biggest doping scandals of the generation around Lance Armstrong were still a fresh memory and many convicted riders were still present in the peloton.
For the road captain of Team Sky and later INEOS Grenadiers, this was something unacceptable and he would make sure to let every single individual with tainted past know that they weren't welcome in the pack. In the Watts Occurring podcast, Rowe explains that at times, he would even go out of his own way to make their life as hard as possible.
"You know who I did flick? People who had been [tested] positive and came back to the sport. I would just ride through them and go out of my way to do it," he said.
While those with "contamined" samples may have been off the hook, proven sinners were a thorn in Rowe's eye: "If it's black and white and you've been done for something and they're next to me, I'm just going to ride through them. I don't understand why every rider didn't do this because then it would make their life hell. Because they don't deserve to come back in my mind."
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Of course such a behaviour would not be accepted by race jury, but Rowe was not worried that there would be any complaints as the individuals in question would get little to no support.
He continued: "And if they shout something, normally they don't 'cos they know they haven't got a leg to stand on. That's probably the only category of rider I was like, I don't give a fuck about them. You've cheated me. You've cheated the sport. Fuck you."
His only regret is that there weren't more like-minded people in the peloton to assist him on his task of riding the unclean methods out of cycling for good.
"Imagine [if] every rider had the same mentality. Imagine you got caught for drugs, you're cheating, [a] scumbag, [you] come back to the sport, you're on the start line with 160 riders and all of them treat you like shit which is all you deserve. You wouldn't want to be in that peloton for long. You could just bully them out the sport. Back to where they belong."
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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