Steve Cummings was the lead directeur sportif for Ineos Grenadiers at the 2023 Tour de France, but he is not in Florence for this year’s race, with the team confirming to Cyclingnews that he will only work ‘remotely’ during the biggest race of the season.
Daniel Benson first reported Cummings' surprising absence via his Substack page, and the team confirmed the news to Cyclingnews. “At this point Steve is not on race but supporting remotely,” Ineos told Cyclingnews.
“The lead DS for the Tour is Zak Dempster who was also the DS for the Giro, and has been working with most of the key riders this season,” Ineos told Daniel Benson.
“Steve, as our Director of Racing, is across all races throughout the year, and on the Tour specifically will be supporting Zak and the team remotely, along with Scott Drawer, John Allert and the other senior team.”
Cummings has worked on a number of races as directeur sportif this season, including the Critérium du Dauphiné, which is traditionally seen as the build-up race to the Tour de France. He has no doubt played a key role in deciding the Ineos line-up and race strategy for the Tour de France but he will not be at the race.
Cummings and Tom Pidcock appeared to endure a tense relationship during the 2023 Tour de France according to the recently released Netflix Tour de France Unchained series. However, Pidcock and teammate Carlos Rodriguez dismissed the Netflix episode as “drama.”
Rodriguez and Egan Bernal have been designated as Ineos’ GC leaders, with Pidcock and Geraint Thomas to support them and target stage wins.
Ineos did not elaborate further, and Cummings did not comment on his absence.
Cummings was promoted to the role of ‘Director of Racing’ when Rod Ellingworth left the team during the winter. Scott Drawer returned as the performance director and John Allert stepped up from managing director to CEO of the British WorldTour team. Former Movistar rider Imanol Erviti has also joined the team as a directeur sportif.
Cummings did not feature in the team’s Tour line-up announcement, with Drawer and the rider the only ones speaking about their Tour hopes.
Erviti and Dempster were among the 50 or so team staff present at the press conference on Wednesday evening, but there was no sign of Cummings.
Former team manager Dave Brailsford used to hog the limelight during his long spell in charge of the team, but no member of the team management took part in the press conference, leaving the riders to talk about their own and the team's wider Tour de France ambitions.
“As long as we're all pulling in the same direction, which I'm confident we will be successful,” Thomas said.
“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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