Team Ineos road captain Luke Rowe called the omission of Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome from the Tour de France a "tough decision" and urged the team to "put all its eggs in one basket and watch Egan."

Lowe is the only Englishman among the eight riders competing in the Tour, and the success of Froome and Thomas so far means little to Team Ineos in its quest to win this year's mountain race against in-form rival Jumbo Visma. While Bernal and many of the other Tour de France representatives raced in France in August, Rowe raced the Tour de Pollogne and then the Tour de Wallonie in Belgium.

On Wednesday, Team Ineos director Dave Brailsford approved Bernal's appointment as team leader and replaced Richard Carapas with Thomas. He named Thomas as leader of the Giro d'Italia and sent Froome to the Vuelta a España. Pavel Sivakov, Andrei Amador, Jonathan Castroviejo, Michal Kwiatkowski, Dylan van Baarle, and Lowe will all play important roles in protecting and helping Bernal.

"It's obviously a difficult decision. We are talking here about a four-time winner of this race and a former winner who finished second last year. It's hard to leave them at home, but you have to put all your eggs in one basket and take care of Egan," Rowe told Belgian TV station RTBF before the final stage of the Tour de Wallonie.

Rowe admitted that Froome and Thomas were not at their best during the Dauphiné, which ended two weeks before the Tour de France Grande Parc on August 29.

"If you look at the recent races, I wouldn't say they are out of shape, but they are probably not in the shape they need to be. If you want to win the Tour de France, you have to be at the top of your game in the Dauphiné," Lowe admitted.

"It's a difficult decision. So the bosses pay a lot of money and we do what they say."

Thomas and Froome wanted to run the Tour de France, but have been given leadership roles in other Grand Tours in the changed season. Thomas has time to find his best form for the Giro d'Italia, which starts October 3 in Palermo, and Froome has another 60 days to recover from his terrible crash at the 2019 Criterium du Dauphiné.

Lowe emphasized the positive aspects of Team Ineos spreading this year's Grand Tour winners across the various races.

"Spreading our riders across three Grand Tours is something we haven't done in years, and there are plenty of opportunities for success in other big races," he argued.

"Hopefully we can have success in three Grand Tours instead of just one, as we have in recent years.