Steve Cummings is a former English road racing cyclist who raced on a pro level between 2005 and 2019 with outfits such as Team Sky, BMC Racing or, lastly, before his pro racing retirement, Team Dimension Data. Cummings began his career on the track with Great Britain, winning medals in the team pursuit alongside Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas, and even winning two stages of the Tour de France in the course of his career. After his retirement announcement, Steve was hoping to get one more win under his belt in the 2020 season but a serious crash during the Tour of Britain left him with several fractured vertebrae. This forced him to accept that his life had just truly started a new chapter.
As with many ex-pro cyclists, Steve also remained in the cycling world to share invaluable experience and advice with the up-and-coming crop of pro riders. In 2021, he joined Ineos Grenadiers as a development directeur sportif and coach, returning to the squad a decade after he left as a rider, and was preparing the team for the 2023 Tour de France at the time of the podcast.
With Matt, they went over the past 20 years of the Tour ad Steve’s involvement in it, tried to sketch the race’s future and racing approaches in the next decades, discussed the (data-)strategy of piecing together a specific team for each race, including all the hurdles they might run into in a season, and much more.
Make a cup of coffee, relax and give the new episode a listen!