Rowe saw Froome "getting destroyed" by doping allegations, but sees now a different problem: "It's hostile"

When you say Rowe, you quickly think of Geraint Thomas. The Welshman, who is in his final year with INEOS Grenadiers, rode with Rowe for many years in the English team. When asked about his relationship with Thomas, the Decathlon AG2R sports director was clear. "I’ve known Geraint for 25 years. More. We grew up three, four kilometres from each other. We’ve done some great stuff together and what you see is what you get. He’s genuinely a good friend of mine."

Together with Thomas, Rowe has seen cycling change in recent years. ”Racing used to be a lot slower and more relaxed. You’d say: "We’ll have a chat when the break goes, mate. And you’d genuinely have a catch-up and a chinwag. Now the racing is too fast to talk," said the Welshman, who didn't have many conversations in his final years as a rider. "I just tried to keep my head down and save every bit of energy I could. I used to try and lighten the mood sometimes, and say a stupid comment as I passed someone. But 90% of the time it’s work, not pleasure."

Another part of that slightly older cycling era was Froome. The British rider won the Tour de France four times in his heyday, although he was involved in many (doping) allegations. "Froomey’s successes came off the back of a very suspect sport, off the back of the Lance Armstrong thing, and the whole sport collapsed for a while. Shortly afterwards Froomey was king of the sport. Whoever was king post-Lance Armstrong was going to get destroyed. We had some hate off certain people throughout our time at Sky because we were the best. Now Ineos is not the best, I don’t think anyone suspects anything," said Rowe about the sport's doping history.

This naturally raises the question: why doesn't someone like Tadej Pogacar, who rides particularly dominantly in some races, get as many questions and suspicions as Froome did at the time? "I think it’s because the sport is in the best state it’s ever been in. And I think this is largely down to the inclusion of the biological passport. It really has cleaned up the sport," said Rowe. "I think it’s a very hard system to defeat or lie when you’re getting all your results continually plotted on a graph, and you can test positive just for an anomaly. When was the last rider who got caught or went positive in cycling? I can’t think of one in the past few years. When I started my career, every month there would be someone. The sport’s in a good place. Riders and teams can say it, but the proof is in the pudding."

Rowe does not pay much attention to doping allegations, as the Welshman sees a completely different problem in cycling today. He was asked whether he thought riders were too cautious with journalists. "One hundred per cent agree," said the former rider. "Any sport needs characters. When you look at the past, some of Cav’s [Mark Cavendish’s] interviews were great. There were a few less fucks given back in the day. Peter Sagan, some of the stuff he did: spraying his moustache green, mad celebrations and interviews."

According to Rowe, there is a very clear reason for this. "But the big downfall is social media. It’s terrible. It’s hostile. If people give a flamboyant interview and put their neck on the line, they open themselves up to get destroyed." According to the sports director, this has consequences for the riders. "People are so cautious and nervous. How many interviews do you hear where they say – It was a great race, my team are very strong, it means so much to me to win this race. It’s like, Christ, mate, give me something else. There are people on Twitter [X] who simply aren’t worth listening to. They’ve got an opinion, cyclists see it, and it gets them down. People who write genuine hate and threats don’t realise they are talking to a human being. The sport needs people to show emotion."