Luke Rowe has said he left Ineos Grenadiers in favour of a job at a rival team because the structure of the British team, and its owners Ineos, was so complex it was hard for anyone within the cycling team to have any impact.
Rowe suffered a crash E3 Saxo Classic (1.UWT) back in March, saying the injuries he sustained there made it clear to him his career was over, even though he had next year to run on his contract.
He is now set to take up a sports director job at Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, saying he did not opt for Ineos Grenadiers as a post-career employer because the team's decision making structure meant he would get lost and would have no power or influence.
He stressed he harboured no animosity towards anyone at the team, but simply believed his time would be wasted if he tried to stay on and take a management job there given how the British outfit has changed.
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"One of my big concerns with staying at Ineos was that I want to make a change – if it's here now then I want it to become better, whatever department I was in, you want to improve," Rowe said.
"Honestly, the biggest reason I was scared was if I wanted to make a change then it has to go through too many people and the change doesn't end up happening.
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"I just didn't want my time wasted and that was my biggest fear. It wasn't financial, it wasn't any negativity towards an individual or the team as a whole; I've got a lot of time for them.
"But I was scared that I'd get lost in a big organisation. But it's also more than a cycling team now – it's part of a global business and it's owned by Ineos, not sponsored by them."
He said because the team was now part of a much larger sports business, and people outside the team ultimately called the shots, it was a very different set-up to the Team Sky Procycling he signed for back in 2012.
"At Team Sky there was always Dave Brailsford at the top. You might have run things by a few people but the buck stopped with him," Rowe told GCN. "But now, there's more levels above and above.
"Certainly, the right people can make decisions where things could change overnight – if something big needs to be changed then it goes to the top dog and with a click of the fingers it's done. But for me, I'd be a long way down the pecking order and it'd have to go up through the chain of command.
"I never thought I'd really leave the team. I thought that's where I would spend most of my post-cycling career, that that was the natural thing to do, and then when that crash did happen in March it was clear that was the end of my career. You take a step back and you go 'What am I going to do?'
"The first team I spoke to was Ineos and they kind of laid it out. 'Right OK, thank you very much' and then I started speaking to other teams. I just feel like change is good sometimes."
