Steve Cummings joins Ineos-Grenadiers as Director
Steve Cummings has joined Ineos-Grenadiers as a development sports director and coach. The former professional from Great Britain retired from racing at the end of 2019 after 15 years in the peloton. Cummings previously rode for Team Sky in 2010 and 2011.
“When I stopped racing, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I started studying [sports business management] because I felt like I needed a bit more in my life. I tried to do a few things but I missed that competitive edge and competition,” Cummings said in the team’s press release. “I’ve always kept in touch with Dave [Brailsford] and we spoke for a while about various things, and eventually he offered me an opportunity to be a part of the team.”
Cummings enjoyed a long pro career which started with the small Belgian Landbouwkrediet-Colnago team in 2005. He won silver at the British championships behind his soon-to-be team Sky teammate Russel Downing. After a brief stint at Discovery, Cummings joined Barloworld to race with Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas before moving on to Team Sky, BMC and MTN-Qhubeka/Dimension Data.
Cummings enjoyed some of the most stylish wins of his career in the closing years. A Tour de France stage victory ahead of Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet at the Mende Airport on Mandela Day in 2015. Along with long range solo attacks at Tirreno Adriatico, Criterium di Dauphiné and the 2016 Tour de France. His aggressive style of racing fits the new Ineos-Grenadiers race philosophy adopted in the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España last season.
“For me, that’s the really exciting part,” Cummings says. “That’s what I’m passionate about – riders winning, everyone getting an opportunity, and how that can affect the group. Starting as many races as we can thinking about how we’re going to win the race. That’s quite a challenge and very inspiring. This team has been so incredibly successful in what they’ve done, and that isn’t being changed, it’s just being tweaked and an extra dimension added, which hopefully will bring more success. Riders will see that everyone will get an opportunity, but to earn that opportunity you need discipline and commitment.”
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