Luke Rowe has become a more critical part of Team Sky’s Classics campaign and the 25-year-old Welshman is on a course to help the team finally win a Monument this year in Flanders or Roubaix.

“The results speak for themselves. In my eyes there are have been three cobbled classics with Omloop, Kuurne, and E3. We’ve won two and placed third in Kuurne. On a more personal note I’m really happy with how things have started. I was 9th in Omloop and 13th in E3, both pretty solid results so I’m pretty happy,” Rowe told Cyclingnews on the eve of Sunday’s Gent-Wevelgem.

In Thomas, the team has THE form rider on the cobbles and with men like Stannard, Wiggins and Rowe all ready to help in Flanders before riding potentially for themselves in Roubaix things look good. The team has also been helped by the absences of men like Boonen, Cancellara and Langeveld from the classics, and riders like Sagan and Degenkolb looking out of sorts on the cobbles.

“Of course this is the best chance we’ve had to win a Monument in the history of the team. Is Thomas a favourite for Flanders? Quite possibly, but there are still some superstars out there who haven’t done anything yet and will be super motivated to get results, but one thing you can guarantee with us is that we won’t take our foot off the gas.”

“When Geraint won (E3) there was no direct message that evening but the team just told us to keep it going,” he said. “The morale is so high in the team and if you look elsewhere in the team in other races, we just seem to be on a roll. I think we all just want to keep that going.”

The team has evolved greatly since 2010 and Rowe says that now Team Sky is perhaps the best Classics roster going at the moment.

“For the team I think it’s just a long time coming. Team Sky started off with big emphasis on GC and we conquered that but the Classics aren’t something we’ve conquered. The riders like Thomas and Stannard are just coming of age now and the difference they’ve made in the last two or three years is massive. They’ve really come on and ahead of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix we’ve come on leaps and bounds and with Bradley coming in we’re perhaps the strongest team out there,” Rowe said.

“When I came on board, I was signed as a neo-pro and meant to work out what I was good at. The Classics have become a massive part of my season but in that first year I didn’t get a look in. Since then I’ve ridden them every year and this year I’ve really stepped up, but a lot of the battle with these races, as everyone knows, is just about knowing the roads, so it takes years to learn them. You don’t see that many riders coming in and doing well in these races at the first attempt like you might do in other races.”