Rowe’s Stunning Solo Win Is No Joke To The Welsh Ace

Luke Rowe claimed a superb solo win on the second stage of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour on Friday.

The Cardiff-born rider led a breakaway before powering away from a reduced lead group to triumph.

The win was Rowe’s first in over four years since taking a stage at the Tour of Britain in 2012.

The Team Sky rider beamed: “It’s been a while, it’s been an ongoing joke. I haven’t won anything for a long time.

“I kind of forgot how to do it all so it’s nice to get the hands in the air.”

Rowe was in a group of 10 that spent around 87 miles in the lead of the stage from Mt Beauty to Beechworth.

The 26-year-old then led a splinter group of four before dropping them to win the stage by a massive 33 seconds.

Rowe was also named the most aggressive rider on the day having revealed the race plan had been hatched with team-mate Ian Stannard and sporting director Brett Lancaster the night before.

He added: “I already said to Brett that we should try and go for a breakaway so we assigned myself and Yogi (Stannard) to go in the break so it was always the plan to go.

“The whole day I was wary of a few guys and there were some excellent climbers in the break.

“It was just a case of trying to use them up to the best of my advantage and I opened up a decent gap straight away so I enjoyed the last 20km solo.

Rowe, who is supporting Chris Froome at the race, is now 37th overall – 12 minutes 47 seconds down on race leader Damien Howson of Orica-Scott.

Three-time Tour de France champ Froome is sixth – one minute 12 seconds back – with two stages left.

Rowe, whop helped Froome to his Tour wins in 2015 and last year, is relishing his prolonged race spell in Australia.

He was fifth in last weekend’s Great Ocean Road Race and posted the 11th quickest time on the prologue on Wednesday for the Herald Sun Tour.

”I love it,” said Rowe, who began his career with the Maindy Flyers in Cardiff. “I absolutely love it.

“They are the most enjoyable races to do. You’re rolling around in a campervan as opposed to a bus.

“It’s like lads on tour, it’s good craic. The pressure doesn’t really get to me in the bigger races anyway, you just get on with it.

“But it’s definitely low pressure and you just go out there and have fun. If you win, then great, if you don’t, then great. You just go with it.”