Tom Pidcock has spoken about Ineos Grenadiers' surprising decision to have their director of racing, Steve Cummings, support the team remotely during the Tour de France, saying that he felt it would have little impact.
"I don’t think it’ll have an impact. Things change, it’s not really for me to comment," Pidcock told Cycling Weekly at the Tour de France teams presentation held on Thursday at the Piazza Michelangelo in Florence, Italy.
Cummings and Pidcock appeared to endure a tense relationship during the 2023 Tour de France, according to the recently released Netflix series, Tour de France Unchained. However, in a press conference ahead of the Tour de France, Pidcock and teammate Carlos Rodriguez dismissed the Netflix episode as “drama”.
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Cummings held the position of lead directeur sportif at last year's Tour de France, but this year, the team has placed directeur sportif Zak Dempster in that role. The team will also have a second directeur sportif, Xavier Zandio Echaide, at the race.
Dempster told Cycling Weekly that he learned that he would be leading the team at the Tour de France two weeks ago. He also said that he felt that it would be challenging for Cummings to support the team remotely.
"I think that’s impossible. For the moment, I am the lead DS here, and it’ll be me managing the race on behalf of the performance team. But for sure, he will have an input, and he’s done a really good job building this journey so far, and we go on with it."
Cummings has worked on several races as Ineos Grenadiers' directeur sportif this season, including the Critérium du Dauphiné, traditionally considered the build-up race to the Tour de France.
He has played a key role in deciding the Ineos Grenadiers' roster and race strategy for the Tour de France, where Rodriguez and Egan Bernal have been designated as Ineos’ GC leaders, with Pidcock and Geraint Thomas to support them and target stage wins.
“As long as we're all pulling in the same direction, which I'm confident we will be successful,” Thomas said in the press conference. “Of course, there’ll be bumps in the road, but I think it's just dealing with them as best we can at that time. We're all clear what we're coming here to try to achieve.”
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