Luke Rowe will spend the next three seasons with Team Sky after extending his contract through to the end of 2021.
Rowe, who turned professional with the team in 2012, returned to top form this season following a serious leg break in late 2017. The comeback was complete when the 28 year-old was selected to ride his fourth straight Tour de France in July helping compatriot Geraint Thomas ride to his maiden Tour title.
“I’ve been with Sky since the start of my career and I really feel a part of the furniture here,” said Rowe. “It’s been seven years and this deal will take me through to 10 years with Team Sky, so it was an easy decision. This is home.
“The team backed me straight away after my injury, whereas some teams would have turned their back. They helped me tackle the injury head on and looked after me every step of the way.
“If I’d have been out of contract one year earlier I’d have been in a mess. I had a year to prove myself again and come back – to show that it hadn’t affected me and that I could reach the level I was at before.
“I was so fortunate to be in this team when I suffered such a bad injury. Sometimes the stars just align and everything works out.”
With top-10’s at both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix on his palmares, Rowe will continue to focus on the Classics in 2019, before switching to a support role at the Grand Tours.
“I’ll continue to keep knocking on the door at the Classics and see what I can do there, and after that it will hopefully be the Tour, or any of the Grand Tours. I really don’t mind,” he said.
Life has changed for Rowe over the past month following the birth of his first son, Oliver. The Welshman is relishing fatherhood off the bike, while hoping to act as a father figure to Team Sky’s next generation on the bike over the coming years.
He continued: “It gives me that extra bit of motivation and inspiration to go out training and go racing – to be the best I can be. I want to make him proud.
“And hopefully with the younger guys that’s the type of thing that will be part of my role going forward – going to a race with a bunch of young lads, rallying the troops, and doing the business.
“It’s a role I enjoy. We went over to the Tour of California with a really young squad this year – Egan [Bernal], Tao [Geoghegan Hart], Pavel [Sivakov], Sebastian [Henao] and we rode like 10 men. Egan had been incredible before but that was his breakthrough ride, so to be a part of that was pretty special.
“We’ve got Froomey and G who are Grand Tour winners and will be looking to do that for the next few years, but then you look to the likes of Egan – he’s signed a long contract and within that time he could win a Grand Tour. I’m excited to work alongside him.”
