Luke Rowe reckons he is a bike rider again – and is relishing the day when he can call himself a bike racer!
The Cardiff ace is back training with his Team Sky team-mates in Majorca just over four months after shattering his leg.
Rowe’s return is ahead of schedule after the freak accident while on his brother Matt’s stag do in Prague when he hit a rock after jumping into the water to go rafting.
“So far it’s been fairly plain sailing,” said Rowe, whose long hours of fitness work in the gym is beginning to pay off as he can now spend three hours on the bike.
“Every date or goal I’ve been given I’ve managed to beat, so that results in me being back on the bike way ahead of schedule.”
The 27-year-old added of the Spanish training trip:“Being out here with all the lads, getting back to it – I love it.
“I’m obviously not training as hard as them or doing the same hours they are, but doing a bit of what they’re doing and being a part of the whole scene here is sweet.
“It makes you feel a bit more like a piece of the puzzle, as opposed to a piece of furniture.
“I never thought I’d be back on a bike this soon. Maybe I feel like a bike rider again, but not a bike racer!
“I haven’t got full strength in my leg yet and I’m pretty unfit to say the least, as expected. My main priority now is training on my bike rather than in the gym.”
Rowe admits he was never big fan of gym work before the accident in the Czech republic.
But he hopes the gym work will pay off when he does return to racing – though no date has been set for that yet despite his progress.
“Some guys are in to it, some guys aren’t, and I wasn’t prior to the accident,” said Rowe to the Team Sky website.
“But it helps you work on your weaknesses; my core and back were slightly weak, but now I’ve had time to flip that on its head. Hopefully that will help me long term – that’s a big piece of the puzzle.
“But if I could get back to where I was before I’d be happy – anything else is just a bonus.
“It’s all about getting back to that level, which seems like a blooming long way away at the moment!
“But things move quickly, and when you get back on the bike and back doing the things you love, it should start to move pretty quick. It’s about trying to be consistent day in, day out.”
“There’s no real return date. We’ll just take it day-by-day, week-by-week. As soon as I can be back I’ll be back and whether that’s in two, four, six or eight months, when the date’s right the date is right.
“You’ve also got to be careful not to rush these things. I want to come back as soon as possible, but at a half decent level. I don’t want to go to races as cannon fodder – it’s about finding that balance.
“There’ll be a point when I go out on the bike and I’ll think, ‘You know what? I think I’m ready.’”