Steve Cummings

Stephen Philip Cummings (born 19 March 1981) is an English former racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2005 and 2019 for the Landbouwkrediet–Colnago, Discovery Channel, Barloworld, Team Sky, BMC Racing Team and Team Dimension Data squads, and rode for Great Britain at the Summer Olympic Games, the UCI Road World Championships, and the UCI Track Cycling World Championships.

During his professional road racing career, Cummings took seventeen victories, including Grand Tour stage wins at the 2012 Vuelta a España, the 2015 Tour de France and the 2016 Tour de France. He won both the British National Road Race Championships and the British National Time Trial Championships in 2017, and also won stages of the Tour of Beijing, Tirreno–Adriatico, Tour of the Basque Country and Critérium du Dauphiné races at UCI World Tour level. On the track, Cummings won gold medals in the team pursuit at both the 2005 UCI Track Cycling World Championships and the 2006 Commonwealth Games, and a silver medal in the same event at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Since retiring from racing, Cummings worked as a directeur sportif for UCI WorldTeam Netcompany–Ineos. He joined Team Jayco–AIS as a Sport Director in December 2024.

Biography

Cummings was born in Clatterbridge on the Wirral Peninsula in Northwest England and grew up in the nearby village of Pensby.

Early career

In 1999, riding for Birkenhead North End CC as a junior, aged 17, he won the Eddie Soens Memorial Road Race, a handicap race open to all categories. It remains the only time that a junior rider has won the race. He went on to take the junior British National Road Race Championships that year.

Representing his country Cummings won the team pursuit at the 2005 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Los Angeles and at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne with the British and English cycling teams respectively. He also took bronze in the individual pursuit at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. At the 2004 Olympics in Athens Cummings and the Great Britain team won the silver medal in the team pursuit and achieved a time of 3:59.866 in the heats.

He rode for Landbouwkrediet–Colnago in 2005 and 2006, recording second-place finishes at the 2005 British National Road Race Championships and the 2006 Trofeo Laigueglia, to Russell Downing and Alessandro Ballan respectively. In 2007 he switched to Discovery Channel, making his first start at a Grand Tour by riding the Giro d'Italia – as a late replacement for defending race winner Ivan Basso.

Barloworld (2008–2009)

With Discovery Channel folding at the end of the 2007 season, Cummings moved to Barloworld for the 2008 season – joining his compatriot Geraint Thomas at the team. In his second start with the team, Cummings won stage 2 of February's Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria. He again rode the Giro d'Italia, recording a fourth-place stage result on the final summit finish of the race at Monte Pora, having been a part of the breakaway. In the second half of the season, he recorded second-place overall finishes at the Danmark Rundt and the Tour of Britain, but did take his second win of the year at the Coppa Bernocchi, in a three-rider sprint.

The following year saw Cummings take a single victory in the third Giro del Capo challenge, with other top-five finishes at the Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria (fifth), and the Coppa Bernocchi (fourth). Despite this, Barloworld folded at the end of the season.

Team Sky (2010–2011)

Cummings was one of four former Barloworld riders to join new British-based Team Sky for the 2010 season, signing a two-year contract. His best result during the season was a fourth-place finish at the Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise in January.

In 2011, he had arguably his most successful professional race to that point at February's Volta ao Algarve. He won stage three in a mountain-top finish ahead of Alberto Contador, taking the overall lead of the race which he held until the final individual time trial; he finished the race in seventh place. In September, Cummings finished second to teammate Alex Dowsett at the British National Time Trial Championships, before finishing second overall in the Tour of Britain. He was part of the Great Britain team that helped Mark Cavendish win the road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Denmark, and then finished fourth overall in the first Tour of Beijing.

BMC Racing Team (2012–2014)

2012

In September 2011, Cummings signed a contract with the BMC Racing Team for the 2012 season. The following February, Cummings broke his pelvis in an accident while competing in the Volta ao Algarve. In April, bad luck struck again when he fractured his left wrist in the Tour of the Basque Country. He recuperated from those injuries and competed in the Tour de France, where he was a domestique to his leader Cadel Evans and finished 95th overall. In the Vuelta a España, he gained his first Grand Tour stage victory. On Stage 13, he broke away with six other riders after the first hour of racing. The break made it through on the mainly flat course and he attacked with about 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) to race, creating a gap. He held on to his lead and won by four seconds over the two chasers, Cameron Meyer of Orica–GreenEDGE and Team Sky's Juan Antonio Flecha. He completed his season with a stage victory on the final day of the Tour of Beijing, getting the better of Ryder Hesjedal in a sprint à deux in Pinggu.

2013–2014

Cummings did not take an individual win in 2013, with his only win coming as part of the BMC Racing Team squad that won the stage two team time trial at the Tour of Qatar. At the start of the 2014 season, Cummings took second place at the Dubai Tour behind teammate Taylor Phinney, before winning the individual time trial stage and the general classification at the Tour Méditerranéen, recording his first stage race victory. He also represented England at the Commonwealth Games, finishing in seventh place in the road time trial.

MTN–Qhubeka/Dimension Data (2015–2019)

2015

In October 2014, Cummings announced that he would be joining MTN–Qhubeka for the 2015 season. In his first race with the team, Cummings won the Trofeo Andratx-Mirador d'Es Colomer one-day race, held as part of the season-opening Vuelta a Mallorca; he attacked on the final climb of the race, and was able to fend off Alejandro Valverde in the closing metres for the win. He recorded top-ten overall finishes at the Tirreno–Adriatico and Circuit de la Sarthe stage races in the spring, finishing sixth in both events. In July, Cummings won stage 14 of the Tour de France, beating French riders Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet to the line at the Mende Aerodrome, after the trio had gone clear at the top of the Côte de la Croix Neuve – a second-category climb with 1.5 kilometres (0.93 miles) remaining. It was the first Tour de France stage win for both Cummings and his South African team MTN–Qhubeka, with the result coming on Mandela Day.

2016

In his first start of the 2016 season, Cummings won the fourth stage of March's Tirreno–Adriatico; having been part of the breakaway, Cummings attacked with approximately 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) remaining of the 222-kilometre (138-mile) stage to Foligno, and soloed to a 13-second winning margin over his closest competitors. The following month, he won the third stage of the Tour of the Basque Country, outfoxing the peloton with a move with 1 kilometre (0.62 miles) to go, and held on to win by several metres in Lesaka. In his final warm-up race prior to the Tour de France, Cummings won the final stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné, having attacked with 50 kilometres (31 miles) remaining on the fourth of the day's six categorised climbs, and ended up winning the stage by almost four minutes.

After six stages of July's Tour de France, Cummings had lost almost 45 minutes to the race leader Greg Van Avermaet, and was in 191st place out of the 198 competitors. On the seventh stage, Cummings took another breakaway win, having dropped his breakaway companions just before the intermediate sprint at Sarrancolin; he would go on to win the stage at Lac de Payolle by 64 seconds, over Daryl Impey and Daniel Navarro. In the same month, he was named to Great Britain's cycling team for the Olympic Games in Rio – replacing Peter Kennaugh for the road race. Cummings had previously been left out of the team when it was announced at the beginning of the month, and had lobbied to the British media for coach Rod Ellingworth to quit – due to his involvement with Team Sky, with four riders from the team forming part of the five-man British squad.

He then rode his home race, the Tour of Britain, as part of Team Dimension Data alongside Mark Cavendish. On the second stage in Cumbria, Cummings was part of a group that broke clear on the Kirkstone Pass to chase down the breakaway; a small lead group was formed on the run-in to Kendal, and only Julien Vermote was able to follow the attacks put in by Cummings. Cummings led up the final climb in Kendal, but Vermote pulled clear as the gradient eased and took the stage win and the leader's jersey, while Cummings gained approximately a minute on his main general classification rivals. Cummings took over the race lead following the sixth stage, a summit finish at Haytor, as Vermote lost around 90 seconds to him. Despite Rohan Dennis taking time off him in both of the stages held in Bristol on the penultimate day, Cummings maintained his race lead and ultimately won the race for the first time – the first home win since Bradley Wiggins in 2013 – by 26 seconds from Dennis. Writing for The Guardian, journalist William Fotheringham considered this win for Cummings as the most important stage race victory of his career up to that date.

2017–2019

During the 2017 Tour of the Basque Country, Cummings crashed heavily and required surgery for fractures to his left clavicle and scapula, as well as his sternum. After a long period of recovery he won both the British National Time Trial Championships and the British National Road Race Championships on the Isle of Man, becoming only the second rider to win both titles in the same year after David Millar achieved the same feat in 2007. These performances earned him a new contract with Team Dimension Data. He took one further victory, winning the opening stage of September's Giro della Toscana, having been overlooked for the British team for the road race at UCI Road World Championships in Norway. It would turn out to be the final victory for Cummings in his professional career.

Cummings endured a difficult 2018 season, recording no top-10 finishes, and suffering health issues with an injury to the head of his left fibula at the Tour of Austria, and breathing problems at the Critérium du Dauphiné. In 2019, Cummings finished in third place at the British National Time Trial Championships in Norfolk, and also finished in tenth place overall at the Arctic Race of Norway, but injury and illnesses continued to effect Cummings. Later in the year at the Tour of Britain – and having featured in the final selection on the fourth stage – on home roads in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Cummings was involved in a crash some 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the finish of the fifth stage. He was later diagnosed with four fractured vertebrae in his back, ending his season.

Retirement, directeur sportif

In November 2019, Cummings announced his retirement from professional cycling.

In February 2021 Cummings announced that he was returning to Team Sky, since renamed as INEOS Grenadiers, joining the team's management as a development directeur sportif and coach. In December 2023, he was appointed as the team's director of racing from the 2024 season onwards.

In November 2024 Cummings announced he had left his role as Director of Racing at Ineos Grenadiers. Shortly after it was confirmed that he would join Team Jayco–AlUla as a Sport Director from 2025.

Major results

Road

Source:

1999

1st Road race, National Junior Championships

1st Eddie Soens Memorial Race

2001

10th Lincoln Grand Prix

2003

10th Overall Tour de Berlin

2005

2nd Road race, National Championships

6th Grand Prix de Villers-Cotterêts

2006

2nd Trofeo Laigueglia

4th Road race, Commonwealth Games

2008 (2 pro wins)

1st Coppa Bernocchi

2nd Overall Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria 1st Stage 2

2nd Overall Danmark Rundt

2nd Overall Tour of Britain

2009

1st Stage 3 Giro del Capo

4th Coppa Bernocchi

5th Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria

7th Trofeo Laigueglia

2010

4th Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise

2011 (1)

2nd Time trial, National Championships

2nd Overall Tour of Britain

4th Overall Tour of Beijing

7th Overall Volta ao Algarve 1st Stage 3

9th Overall Tour de Pologne

9th Overall Tour Méditerranéen

2012 (2)

1st Stage 13 Vuelta a España

1st Stage 5 Tour of Beijing

2013

1st Stage 2 (TTT) Tour of Qatar

2014 (2)

1st Overall Tour Méditerranéen 1st Stage 4 (ITT)

2nd Overall Dubai Tour

4th Overall Tour du Poitou-Charentes

7th Time trial, Commonwealth Games

8th Overall Circuit de la Sarthe

2015 (2)

1st Trofeo Andratx-Mirador d'Es Colomer

1st Stage 14 Tour de France

6th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico

6th Overall Circuit de la Sarthe

2016 (5)

1st Overall Tour of Britain

1st Stage 7 Tour de France

1st Stage 4 Tirreno–Adriatico

1st Stage 3 Tour of the Basque Country

1st Stage 7 Criterium du Dauphiné

2017 (3)

National Championships 1st Road race 1st Time trial

1st Stage 1 Giro della Toscana

Combativity award Stage 12 Tour de France

2019

3rd Time trial, National Championships

10th Overall Arctic Race of Norway

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Track

2001

1st Team pursuit, National Championships

2004

2nd Team pursuit, Olympic Games

2005

1st Team pursuit, UCI World Championships

1st Team pursuit, National Championships

2006

Commonwealth Games 1st Team pursuit 3rd Individual pursuit

1st Team pursuit, National Championships

2nd Team pursuit, UCI World Championships

2007

UCI World Cup Classics 1st Team pursuit, Sydney 1st Team pursuit, Beijing

External links

• atCycling Archives()
• atProCyclingStats
• atTeam GB