Luke Rowe admits 'I shouldn’t be here' as Team Sky rider features at Abu Dhabi Tour six months after breaking leg

Matt Jones - Editor 22:44 23/02/2018
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  • Luke Rowe is back competing after breaking his leg in August.

    Luke Rowe won’t have turned many heads at the Abu Dhabi Tour – finishes of 96th, 102nd and 135th in the Emirates hardly scream headline news.

    But it is the Welshman’s presence in the UAE capital itself that is newsworthy. The Team Sky rider lined up for the Tour’s Stage 1 on Wednesday just six months since suffering 25 different fractures to his right leg after jumping into a shallow section of water while white-water rafting on his brother Matt’s stag do in Prague.

    He had a metal rod inserted into his leg during surgery and doctors initially advised him that he was facing a lengthy absence out of the sport – if he ever rode again at all.

    But the 27-year-old Cardiff native wasn’t having any of that, although he admits saddling up in Abu Dhabi this week was beyond his wildest dreams – he had initially slated his return for the Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast in April.

    “It’s so far ahead of schedule, I shouldn’t be here really,” Rowe said at the finish line of Stage 3 on Abu Dhabi’s Corniche on Friday.

    “It’s basically half the recovery time. But not only am I back, but I’m going alright too. It was a straightforward day. Another day in the bag which is nice.”

    Luke Rowe (c) at the 2016 Tour de France.

    Luke Rowe (c) at the 2016 Tour de France.

    Rowe’s broken leg came just weeks after being part of the Sky squad that helped Chris Froome to his fourth Tour de France title.

    The prognosis looked bleak, but by November he was back aboard his bike. In December he linked up with Team Sky at a training camp. And by January he confirmed his readiness to return to action, and settled upon the Abu Dhabi Tour as the starting point for his 2018 campaign.

    Rowe admitted he had the best care and support during and after his ordeal, but that he wouldn’t have returned so soon without plenty of will and hard work.

    “It’s a mix of everything as to why I’m back so soon,” he said.

    “I’ve had the best of the best. Everything around me has been the best of the best, the staff, equipment, but the most important thing is you’ve got to put the work in. Your body isn’t going to heal itself, you have to help it, so it’s a mix. I haven’t really done anything special to be here.”

    Going forward Rowe could find himself among Sky’s cobbled Classics team. He led the group over previous seasons alongside Ian Stannard, Geraint Thomas, Michal Kwiatkowski and Gianni Moscon.

    In 2017, he placed sixth in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and third in third in the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, the early Belgian Classics, which take place this weekend.

    In 2016, he was sixth in the Tour of Flanders. However, he is not yet calling up the team to reserve a spot for him on the roster. In fact, his schedule right now extends only as far as the final day of the Tour on Sunday.

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