Ineos Grenadiers have tried to draw a line under the mysterious absence of senior directeur sportif Steve Cummings at the Tour de France while refusing to explain his absence and why he is not in the team car managing race strategy.
Cummings was promoted to the role of ‘Director of Racing’ when Rod Ellingworth left the team during the winter and worked on a number of races as directeur sportif this season, including the Critérium du Dauphiné.
He has no doubt played a key role in deciding the Ineos line-up and race strategy for the Tour de France but is somehow working remotely in an undefined role, with Zak Dempster nominated as ‘Lead DS’ for the Tour de France just two weeks ago.
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Cummings appeared to endure a difficult relationship with Tom Pidcock during the 2023 Tour de France as he pushed for a protected leadership role, according to the recently released Netflix Tour de France Unchained series. But after arriving in Italy for the Tour Grand Depart, Pidock dismissed the series as ‘drama’ and said he was “portrayed as the bad guy.”
Pidcock told Cycling Weekly that the team will be "better" without Cummings, at this year’s Tour.
“I don’t think it’ll have an impact,” Pidcock said. “Things change, it’s not really for me to comment.”
Pidcock has a contract with Ineos Grenadiers until 2027 and a leadership role. Cycling Weekly suggested that Pidcock has a say in key decision-making on the team. However, another source told Cyclingnews that Pidock was not involved in the decision to leave Cummings at home and that Pidcock was unable to even convince Ineos Grenadiers to bring his preferred soigneur to the Tour de France.
The team told Cyclingnews that “Steve is not on race but supporting remotely.”
Team CEO John Allert agreed to talk to Cyclingnews and the Cycling Podcast before the start of stage one but offered no further details on why Cummings was left at home and his undefined ‘remote’ role.
“I'm actually drawing a line under that completely, to be honest,” Allert said.
“We're here at the beginning of three weeks of magical racing, with probably the most exciting Tour lineup we've had for years. We've got a fantastic team here. There's great unity in the team. So I don't really have anything to add.”
Allert stuck to his line as Cyclingnews suggested that Cummings’ absence could seem strange from outside the team.
“My focus isn't how things look from the outside, it's how things look from the inside. And I'm very comfortable with the team we've got here, the way that we're set up, the way that we're approaching the Tour,” Allert said.
He repeated his desire to draw a line under the story.
“Like I said, I'm drawing a line under it. I don't have anything to add to what's already been said and what's already been written.
“Our focus as a team is what's going on at the Tour and it's a happy team, it's a harmonious team, it's a talented team. We're just looking forward to getting on with the next three weeks.
“I won't go into details about any person's specific roles when it comes to the race. I've said before, Steve's working on the Tour, he's just not at the Tour.
“Zach's role is head DS, so his role is fairly self-evident. Zach and Steve work really closely together, philosophically they're very aligned. They have quite different styles when they're on race but both are very effective. I think both are at the top of their game. We've got every confidence in what Zach's going to do here with a very talented other group of coaches and directeur sportif.”
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