What is happening at the INEOS Grenadiers? Steve Cummings seemingly removed from Deutschland Tour as uncertainty continues regarding sports director's future

Cycling
Wednesday, 21 August 2024 at 10:01
ineosgrenadiers

Things are not completely settled behind the scenes at the INEOS Grenadiers. Seemingly feeling the brunt of the disharmony, sports director Steve Cummings continues to be left out of races.

Cummings, a former Tour de France stage winner in his own right, led the team's sports director at the 2023 Tour de France and was featured heavily in season 2 of Netflix's 'Tour de France: Unchained' documentary. In the show however, the Brit was seen to be at loggerheads with the team's star rider Tom Pidcock and soon after the documentary dropped, it was announced Cummings would not join the team at the Tour de France in 2024.

After the news of Cummings omission for the 2024 Tour de France was confirmed, Pidcock was quoted by Cycling Weekly as saying things would be "better" for the team without Cummings present. More recently, Christian Knees was then revealed as the lead DS at the 2024 Vuelta a Espana.

Now, despite the expectation that Cummings who be at the helm of the INEOS Grenadiers in the Deutschland Tour, this doesn't seem to be the case anymore. "Cummings is no longer listed as a DS for the Lidl Deutschland Tour. He was on Friday and this was meant to be his first race back for the team," reports the respected cycling journalist Daniel Benson.

The question now is, what is going on behind the scenes at the INEOS Grenadiers? Recently, key staff member Dan Bigham quit abruptly and pulled no punches in his explanation afterwards. "How I want to do performance is not particularly aligned with how INEOS wanted to go about it," the Brit, who has proven expertise in time trial and aerodynamic development told The Telegraph. “I feel that a lot of performance we’re leaving on the table and that frustrates me because it’s clear as day we should be doing things a lot better. Let’s be honest, INEOS are not where they want to be, not where they need to be and the gap is not small.” Clearly, all is not well.

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3 Comments
miba1 10 September 2024 at 24:19+ 5

What? Pidcock the problem? You crazy? He's the jewel in the INEOS crown, one of the top names in the sport - and even there he stands apart. In most cases a company, a sponsor can only DREAM of possessing a viral star who actually lives up to the hype and comes through with big results - and with genius performances at that - and they've got one right there in the palm of their hand! Sure, he might be not the ideal team mate in a road race. But he's a known quantity - the rest of the team and the DS all know it, and know they have to work their way around him. So no way is he the problem there, it has to be Steve himself. I don't know him, OK, but he never looked like a top team player when he was riding. He meticulously planned for his epic wins, as far as I remember (not unlike TP himself, ironically). Compare that to Knees, or Puccio, and such like, who might as well be the dictionary definition of self sacrifice. That's what you need for a DS, especially for a team that's struggling with itself a bit. Someone with a track record of putting in the hard yards as team player, someone who's endured and not complained, who can now inspire and encourage. Let Pidcock carry on as long as he can with what he brings to the sport, to young and old alike. I'll bet Radcliffe and the rest of Ineos love Pidcock, every day of the year! OMG!

terryr 05 September 2024 at 09:44+ 4

abstractengineer +2329, not much can be added except, well said.

abstractengineer 18 September 2024 at 11:03+ 3084

When Piddie throws a tantrum, other people are made to leave. But just look at what he did- nothing at TDF, Nothing at Olympic RR. Ineos is not a sole MTB team. As a result experienced staff are being neglected like Bigham and massive egos like Piddie are encouraged.

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