Luke Rowe has said he told Alejandro Valverde not to try and block Team Ineos from driving the front group forward in the crosswinds during yesterday’s Tour de France stage 10.
The Welshman was the outstanding rider of the stage,
piling on the pressure himself on the front.
He also directed Team Ineos during the stage, ensuring
they drove as hard as they could to put as much time as possible into the
general classification men caught out in the splits.
The team was helped by other squads who also wanted to
drive on, including Movistar at first.
However, when Mikel Landa suffered a crash after Warren
Barguil accidentally bumped him, Movistar’s plans changed.
The team wanted to then slow the progress of the front
group. Valverde looked like he was moving through on the front of the group and
then slowing to break the momentum of Team Ineos.
Advertisement
Rowe was on the front at one point when Valverde tried to slow the group and the Team Ineos road captain could be seen turning to him and saying something.
Asked after the stage about the incident with the man in the rainbow bands, Luke Rowe was keen to stress he respected Valverde and there was no problem between the two of them.
Related News
However, he was clear he was unhappy with the world
champion and that he hadn’t held back telling him so during the stage.
“They were riding, then Landa punctured,” said Rowe of
Movistar initially working on the front before Landa lost his place in the
group.
When he spoke immediately after the stage, Rowe didn’t realise
Landa had crashed rather than punctured.
“And then, obviously, they stopped riding,” he said when
Landa was suddenly missing from the group.
“If you stop riding; okay, no problem. But don't roll
through and try and balls it up for the rest of us.
“So I said ‘if you're not going to ride. Okay, don't come
through and balls us up.
“But you won't find many guys classier than Valverde. So
it's no big deal. But I just said, if you're not gonna ride, Okay.
“But don't come through and try and slow us up. Save that
stuff for the junior races. But he's a classy guy saw there's no problem.”
Topics
