07/09/2024

Luke Rowe disappointed with current INEOS performances: "It's a high-budget team, with some very well-paid bike riders - and it's not working out"

Luke Rowe connected his whole professional career with the lone British WorldTour team that managed to win 11 Grand Tours between 2011 and 2021. Having spent thirteen seasons in the team that is currently known as INEOS Grenadiers, Rowe has witnessed the ups and downs of his team from a first-row seat. And it's the current "down period" the 34-year-old wants to speak about.

"You can't really sugarcoat it. It's a high-budget team, with some very well-paid bike riders – some riders who are paid to win big bike races – and it's just not happening," Rowe told on Eurosport's discussion show The Breakaway.

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"I think it's time to just look in the mirror and realise we are underperforming. We're not delivering to expectations, and I don't think it falls on one person's shoulders. For a long period of time, the team was the best team in the world, by a distance, and that's not being arrogant."

"I think to be at the top is one thing, but to stay at the top is another," Rowe said. "You're either the hunted or you're doing the hunting. We were hunted by a lot of teams for a long time, and they were playing catch-up. Now it's role reversal, and we're on the back foot a bit. We're having to chase the top teams. I think not just one team has overtaken us, I think a few have."

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Rowe, who is set to retire at the end of 2024, is optimistic the team can return to the top step as world cycling's prevailing force. "I know the management, I know the owners well, and they're not the type of people who will roll over and get their tummies tickled," the Welshman said. "They're there for a fight, they want to come back, they're going to do the right things, put the right people in the right places."

However he emphasizes that we shouldn't expect wonders "In one or two years, can they turn it around? No, I think it needs to be more long-term. Certainly in five years I see them being one of the top, dominant teams in the world of professional cycling."