Luke Rowe’s First Week at Tour de France 2015

1,343.8km done – 2,016.2km to go. Its the end of the first week of the 2015 Tour de France, which sees Chris Froome holding the yellow jersey, Team Sky generally staying out of trouble, and near stage win being 1second off for Team Sky in Stage 9 – the Team Time Trial.

 

The first week both started and finished on a time trial bike, however the rest of the race will be spent on the road bike, mostly uphill.

How has the first week been for Luke? Here is a short Q&A with Luke, en route to Team Sky’s hotel for the night, where they will spend their well earned rest day…

 

Q – Give us three words to describe the first week of your first Tour de France?

A – Fast, Exciting, Successful.

Q – What has been the hardest moment of the first week?

A – The TTT was pretty grim. Carrying the fatigue from the last 8 days, plus riding at 60kmh + for much of the TTT was so hard. I gave all I had to the team, really emptying the tank.

Q – How does Le Tour compare with your expectations before the race?

A – Bigger. It’s surreal how big the tour is; the crowds, the media, the hype, the speed, the pressure – everything is just bigger, better and more at the tour. I guess there’s just so much more at stake for the teams and riders. A single stage win for some teams can be the difference between a successful season and an unsuccessful one.

Q – Any crazy or scary moments?

A – Loads. Every km of the first week has been stressful, with so many crashes close to me – its always slightly scary.

Q – Whats the plan for the first rest day?

A – A steady few hours in the morning after a bit of a lie in, a massage, and some relaxing with my fiancé Cath, who is coming out to spend the rest day with me.

Q – What is morale in Team Sky like at the moment?

A – High. We were gutted to miss out on the stage win in the TTT (stage 9), but that said, we have the yellow jersey and have barely put a foot wrong as a team so far. The first rest day will be spent with smiles on our faces.

 

 

Luke, Wout Poels and the rest of the Team Sky boys on the way to the team presentation.

 

Luke Rowe and good friend Pete Kennaugh on the start line ahead of Stage 7.