A legendary career, for an even more legendary Grenadier 👌 @LukeRowe1990 has announced he will retire at the end of the 2024 season.
Luke Rowe retires from pro cycling at the end of 2024 - Welshman key to Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal's Tour de France wins
CyclingFriday, 03 May 2024 at 11:51
INEOS Grenadiers have confirmed in a social media post this morning that 34-year old Luke Rowe will retire from pro cycling at the end of the ongoing season. The Welshman has proved a pivotal part of the famous 'Sky Train' throughout the 2010's and assisted the team into five consecutive Tour de France wins.
Rowe was more famously known as the rider who spearheaded the Sky Train throughout many Tours de France. It was eight in fact, from 2015 to 2022 Rowe raced every single one... From 2015 to 2017 he supported Chris Froome into the yellow jersey in Paris; whilst in 2018 and 2019 he helped Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal respectively to Tour de France glory. In every single one, Rowe's road captain abilities and experience was a key part of the team.
The Tour is the race that marked his career, as he succeeded in Paris multiple times as part of the British team. However as a new generation emerged in cycling and INEOS lost it's competitive edge over the other teams, so did Rowe. He hasn't raced the Tour since 2022, but remained an important member of the team in helping young riders make their way through the peloton.
In his palmarès, individually speaking, lay victories at the 2012 Tour of Britain and 2017 Herald Sun Tour. A classics specialist, he also managed to feature in the Top5 of the 2016 Tour of Flanders, whilst throughout his career he also managed to finish in the Top10 of Paris-Roubaix and several other cobbled classics.
Rowe's most recent race was the E3 Saxo Classic, where he crashed out and suffered a concussion. He is still on his way back, but the decision was made throughout the recovery period. "I am focusing on recovering from this latest injury and working with the team and doctors to try and get back on the bike," he said.
He also admits that most likely, he will bring his successful career to a close in his home race: "I have the rest of the season left and I would like to race again in 2024 - with the Tour of Britain being my dream race to end on."
Read also
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Funny isn’t it, I’d say by and large it’s the same in athletics but why is that? Better class of fans? I always wonder about « segregation » regarding litter too, can you predict what kind of person will cast rubbish in nature by their choices in food and drink? It’s obvious what kind of things are predominant and which are rare so I’d say there is pretty good correlation there too.Mistermaumau09-11-2024
- belgian press to van der poel: “yah, we all got together and decided that YOU are already the BEST! awesome, right? sooooo… umm… not that that’s settled, there’s really just no reason you need to bother yourself with silly things like breaking erik de vlaeminck’s record. it’s really, i mean, just kind of a waste of your valuable time, right? you should be out having FUN, not slopping around in the freezing mud… grabbing official records… toppling belgian heroes… … … Please?”OCexile08-11-2024
- Froome is less than 2 millions now since his team is no more in WT. All sources for Roglic say it is between 4 and 4.5 millions, not 5.5. Evenepoel is now 5 millions, so more than these two. Poor researches here.Acapulco08-11-2024
- wow, you’re like a REALLY angry little fella, aren’t you? these discussions are supposed to be FUN, brother. if you find them this upsetting you should MAYYYYBE go for a walk, or get some tropical fish to look at or something. beyond my concern for your emotional well being, i gotta say i don’t understand a few things you tried to say. your point about van der poel at liege? i don’t get it. and exactly who are the “you people” who are persecuting you over pogacar’s walk-over at the giro. anyway, good luck with everything.OCexile08-11-2024
- Lefevere is such a clown.Sweep08-11-2024
- You're spewing nonsense. MVDP was at Liege too. Jonas did his best ever numbers in the Tour, as did Evenepoel. In the worlds, MVDP wasn't the only one chasing and a large part of the route was flat. Oh, did you forget that Pogi soloed 80 ks? What about the 80ks at Strade Bianche? The training ride at the Lombardia? And man, I can't stand how dismissive you people are of his Giro dominance. "There wasn't anyone around to challenge him" yeah well whenever a cyclist wins it's because there was no one else around who would be good enough. I'm sick of this imaginary opponents argument. Who was supposed to be there to challenge him anyways? Do you think Roglic or Evenepoel could do anything? Or Vingegaard, who always trains to peak for the Tour?Ayrton08-11-2024
- What a great ride that day, and what a great young rider. I am really looking forward to what he'll do next, and his attitude about racing is great. Let's hope he keeps that.RidesHills08-11-2024
- everyone should TRY to remember that just a year ago it was pascal the couldn’t remotely hang with vingegaard at the tour. the explanation for that was that pog had injured his wrist and that had interfered with his preparation. compare what a damaged wrist would do to your prep vs. what happened to vingegaard. i think a 100% healthy pogacar vs. a 100% healthy vingegaard at the tour is just about even money. hopefully that’s what we’ll get.OCexile08-11-2024
- i still believe that a thoroughly healthy jonas is at least a match for pogačar. i think some of tadej’s new aura of crushing invincibility comes from a year when everything lined up for him just right. to be clear, i’m NOT saying he’s not the most gifted rider on the planet! he IS! but… liége is made for him; there was NOBODY at the giro to challenge; jonas, for all his spirit, was broken and a shell of his true self at the tour. the Worlds course was a perfect fit for this year for pog, where slimmed down but still MUCH bigger van der poel still kept the gap under a minute in a course that REALLY didn’t suit HIM. my point is that i actually don’t think tadej suddenly launched himself to a level of ability far, far above where he’d been before. he’s a great rider that had an historically great year, but i don’t believe he’s become something NEW, and UNBEATABLE. if he’s fully healthy, i really expect jonas to be as much of a handful for pog as pog is for him.OCexile08-11-2024
- seriously, ESPECIALLY when paired with each other. when they put bob with phil, it’s like bob KNOWS he needs to tighten everything up because phil (god bless him) is losing his marbles. bob is actually pretty GOOD when he’s on phil duty. and when they took vande velde OUT of the booth with bob an put him on the back of a motorcycle, he was suddenly smart and edgy again. put those two guys TOGETHER though, and bob suddenly becomes the dumbest, sloppiest, most ill-informed pogacar and van aert fanboy on the planet, unleashing a constant stream of dim-witted, chuckling hyperbole, and christian is his enabling toady. yuk. after GCN folded i had to listen to wayyyy to much of their “dumb and dumber” show. they must be separated forever.OCexile08-11-2024