21/08/2024

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

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.

No Steve Cummings at Vuelta a Espana as INEOS Grenadiers disharmony behind the scenes continues

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.