Ineos ready to take risks to win Tour de France, says Cummings

Ineos Grenadiers reach the second week of the Tour de France with a very strong general classification showing to their credit, a showing that could have been even better had Dani Martínez not fallen ill last weekend. Yet the team remain ambitious for much more, says lead sports director Steve Cummings.

As the Tour moves into its main trio of Alpine stages this week, Geraint Thomas is lying third overall at 1:17, Adam Yates is fourth at 1:25, and Tom Pidcock is seventh at 1:46. 

It's the strongest collective positioning of any squad in the Tour at this point and they have the yellow helmets as leaders of the teams classification to show for it. 

"The plan is to use the same approach we've had in many races where we're trying to use the numbers – race intelligently off one another," Cummings tells Cyclingnews.

"At some stage, if we want to win, we have to take risks and we're in that mindset."

Cummings points out that, had the team not lost Martínez, winner of this year's Itzulia Basque Country, as a contender so recently, the British squad's situation would have been even stronger.

"I'm sorry we lost Dani Martínez off the GC too because I know he's been really thinking and working hard and dreaming about this race and he was coming here with a completely blank piece of paper, a 'you-write-the-script' situation, to see what happened," Cummings said.

"It's brutal, really. He hadn't had the best preparation, not through any fault of his own, just through little niggles and little sicknesses. Things were starting to turn around and all of a sudden - Bam! - he gets sick. So to lose him off the GC is quite hard.

"But having said that, I think it's kind of exceptional to have had four riders after eight stages in the top 10. You don't often see that and if you look at the broader picture of not just this race but the whole team, we must be doing things really well to get to that point."

However, rather than dwell overly on what can't be changed following Martínez's misfortune, Cummings says the team have to build on what has gone well for bigger ambitions.

"We're here to try and win and we haven't managed to win yet. But on Sunday we were close [with Jonathan Castroviejo, second - Ed.] so we just need to keep doing what we've been doing, whether we end up winning the overall, or whether we win stages or whether it's both."

In either case, Cummings argues, the team have been fighting hard from the get-go and, in terms of preparation or commitment, they have not got it wrong.

"I don't think we need to change anything in that sense. You have to remember Pidcock's hard work for his teammates early on in the flat stages and he's still seventh overall. These things sometimes go under the radar for the world at large but certainly not for us in the team.

"Then G has had a few challenging seasons where his results were good but some people were starting to question him. For him to have the mental energy to reset and go again and be in this position is great, I think. And Adam Yates, he's not had it so easy, getting COVID in Suisse was a major amount of mental strain, so to just accept it and crack on with it is amazing. They all really deserve to be in their different positions on GC."

Behind the scenes, some strategies have changed at Ineos Grenadiers, Cummings says, in terms of how the team are viewing the big set-piece challenges like the Alps. Previously the squad would prefer to work from a global overview, but now it's much more about specific targets.

"It's more day-by-day because I think the team were in a situation that was different back then. They were trying to manage workloads of what is essentially a train. But now that's someone else's job because of the situation in the race."

Hotting up in the second week

One challenge for the entire peloton, including Ineos Grenadiers, is the rising threat of extremely hot weather in the second part of the Tour. Cummings says that, although there is always the possibility of somebody having a bad day in the heat, they have "left no stone unturned" in trying to keep that factor under control.

"The performance team is really good and we're constantly thinking about these things, and, at the risk of sounding boring, we've put a constant, evidence-based plan in action.

"G was really good in Suisse, the heat doesn't bother Adam, and with Tom, I know he prepared well for it, so he's ready for it.

"It worked really well at Suisse where it was super hot, we had good rider feedback. Sometimes it's that link between the evidence and delivering what the evidence says in the races that is quite difficult so credit again to all the staff who were able to deliver that strategy on the road."

With all that in place, the main question remains where Ineos Grenadiers go from here in terms of the race itself. As Cummings sees it, each rider provides different ingredients to a combined recipe.

"We've been working with the riders and we've had the same approach in many races where we're trying to use the numbers and race intelligently off one another.

"In Tom's case, as it's his first Tour this is an unknown, which is exciting for the team and for Tom to explore what he's capable of doing, so that's really cool. And at the same time he's an intelligent guy, he's opening to listening and learning so he's fitting in really well.

"G and Adam are seasoned pros and they know and understand their strengths and weaknesses and know how that can help one another. In both cases they know if have to commit to one or another, they would."