Steve Cummings

Stephen Philip Cummings (born 19 March 1981 ) is an English former racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2005 and 2019 for the, , , , and  squads, and rode for Great Britain at the Summer Olympic Games, the UCI Road World Championships, and the UCI Track Cycling World Championships.

During his professional road racing career, Cummings took seventeen victories, including Grand Tour stage wins at the 2012 Vuelta a España, the 2015 Tour de France and the 2016 Tour de France. He won both the British National Road Race Championships and the British National Time Trial Championships in 2017, and also won stages of the Tour of Beijing, Tirreno–Adriatico, Tour of the Basque Country and Critérium du Dauphiné races at UCI World Tour level. On the track, Cummings won gold medals in the team pursuit at both the 2005 UCI Track Cycling World Championships and the 2006 Commonwealth Games, and a silver medal in the same event at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Since retiring from racing, Cummings has worked as a directeur sportif for UCI WorldTeam.

Biography
Cummings was born in Clatterbridge on the Wirral Peninsula in Northwest England and grew up in the nearby village of Pensby.

Early career
In 1999, riding for Birkenhead North End CC as a junior, aged 17, he won the Eddie Soens Memorial Road Race, a handicap race open to all categories. It remains the only time that a junior rider has won the race. He went on to take the junior British National Road Race Championships that year.

Representing his country Cummings won the team pursuit at the 2005 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Los Angeles and at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne with the British and English cycling teams respectively. He also took bronze in the individual pursuit at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. At the 2004 Olympics in Athens Cummings and the Great Britain team won the silver medal in the team pursuit and achieved a time of 3:59.866 in the heats.

He rode for in 2005 and 2006, recording second-place finishes at the 2005 British National Road Race Championships and the 2006 Trofeo Laigueglia, to Russell Downing and Alessandro Ballan respectively. In 2007 he switched to, making his first start at a Grand Tour by riding the Giro d'Italia – as a late replacement for defending race winner Ivan Basso.

Barloworld (2008–2009)
With folding at the end of the 2007 season, Cummings moved to  for the 2008 season – joining his compatriot Geraint Thomas at the team. In his second start with the team, Cummings won stage 2 of February's Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria. He again rode the Giro d'Italia, recording a fourth-place stage result on the final summit finish of the race at Monte Pora, having been a part of the breakaway. In the second half of the season, he recorded second-place overall finishes at the Danmark Rundt and the Tour of Britain, but did take his second win of the year at the Coppa Bernocchi, in a three-rider sprint.

The following year saw Cummings take a single victory in the third Giro del Capo challenge, with other top-five finishes at the Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria (fifth), and the Coppa Bernocchi (fourth). Despite this, folded at the end of the season.

Team Sky (2010–2011)
Cummings was one of four former riders to join new British-based  for the 2010 season, signing a two-year contract. His best result during the season was a fourth-place finish at the Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise in January.

In 2011, he had arguably his most successful professional race to that point at February's Volta ao Algarve. He won stage three in a mountain-top finish ahead of Alberto Contador, taking the overall lead of the race which he held until the final individual time trial; he finished the race in seventh place. In September, Cummings finished second to teammate Alex Dowsett at the British National Time Trial Championships, before finishing second overall in the Tour of Britain. He was part of the Great Britain team that helped Mark Cavendish win the road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Denmark, and then finished fourth overall in the first Tour of Beijing.

2012
In September 2011, Cummings signed a contract with the for the 2012 season. The following February, Cummings broke his pelvis in an accident while competing in the Volta ao Algarve. In April, bad luck struck again when he fractured his left wrist in the Tour of the Basque Country. He recuperated from those injuries and competed in the Tour de France, where he was a domestique to his leader Cadel Evans and finished 95th overall. In the Vuelta a España, he gained his first Grand Tour stage victory. On Stage 13, he broke away with six other riders after the first hour of racing. The break made it through on the mainly flat course and he attacked with about 4 km to race, creating a gap. He held on to his lead and won by four seconds over the two chasers, Cameron Meyer of and 's Juan Antonio Flecha. He completed his season with a stage victory on the final day of the Tour of Beijing, getting the better of Ryder Hesjedal in a sprint à deux in Pinggu.

2013–2014
Cummings did not take an individual win in 2013, with his only win coming as part of the squad that won the stage two team time trial at the Tour of Qatar. At the start of the 2014 season, Cummings took second place at the Dubai Tour behind teammate Taylor Phinney, before winning the individual time trial stage and the general classification at the Tour Méditerranéen, recording his first stage race victory. He also represented England at the Commonwealth Games, finishing in seventh place in the road time trial.

2015
In October 2014, Cummings announced that he would be joining for the 2015 season. In his first race with the team, Cummings won the Trofeo Andratx-Mirador d'Es Colomer one-day race, held as part of the season-opening Vuelta a Mallorca; he attacked on the final climb of the race, and was able to fend off Alejandro Valverde in the closing metres for the win. He recorded top-ten overall finishes at the Tirreno–Adriatico and Circuit de la Sarthe stage races in the spring, finishing sixth in both events. In July, Cummings won stage 14 of the Tour de France, beating French riders Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet to the line at the Mende Aerodrome, after the trio had gone clear at the top of the Côte de la Croix Neuve – a second-category climb with 1.5 km remaining. It was the first Tour de France stage win for both Cummings and his South African team, with the result coming on Mandela Day.

2016
In his first start of the 2016 season, Cummings won the fourth stage of March's Tirreno–Adriatico; having been part of the breakaway, Cummings attacked with approximately 3 km remaining of the 222 km stage to Foligno, and soloed to a 13-second winning margin over his closest competitors. The following month, he won the third stage of the Tour of the Basque Country, outfoxing the peloton with a move with 1 km to go, and held on to win by several metres in Lesaka. In his final warm-up race prior to the Tour de France, Cummings won the final stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné, having attacked with 50 km remaining on the fourth of the day's six categorised climbs, and ended up winning the stage by almost four minutes.

After six stages of July's Tour de France, Cummings had lost almost 45 minutes to the race leader Greg Van Avermaet, and was in 191st place out of the 198 competitors. On the seventh stage, Cummings took another breakaway win, having dropped his breakaway companions just before the intermediate sprint at Sarrancolin; he would go on to win the stage at Lac de Payolle by 64 seconds, over Daryl Impey and Daniel Navarro. In the same month, he was named to Great Britain's cycling team for the Olympic Games in Rio – replacing Peter Kennaugh for the road race. Cummings had previously been left out of the team when it was announced at the beginning of the month, and had lobbied to the British media for coach Rod Ellingworth to quit – due to his involvement with, with four riders from the team forming part of the five-man British squad.

He then rode his home race, the Tour of Britain, as part of alongside Mark Cavendish. On the second stage in Cumbria, Cummings was part of a group that broke clear on the Kirkstone Pass to chase down the breakaway; a small lead group was formed on the run-in to Kendal, and only Julien Vermote was able to follow the attacks put in by Cummings. Cummings led up the final climb in Kendal, but Vermote pulled clear as the gradient eased and took the stage win and the leader's jersey, while Cummings gained approximately a minute on his main general classification rivals. Cummings took over the race lead following the sixth stage, a summit finish at Haytor, as Vermote lost around 90 seconds to him. Despite Rohan Dennis taking time off him in both of the stages held in Bristol on the penultimate day, Cummings maintained his race lead and ultimately won the race for the first time – the first home win since Bradley Wiggins in 2013 – by 26 seconds from Dennis. Writing for The Guardian, journalist William Fotheringham considered this win for Cummings as the most important stage race victory of his career up to that date.

2017–2019
During the 2017 Tour of the Basque Country, Cummings crashed heavily and required surgery for fractures to his left clavicle and scapula, as well as his sternum. After a long period of recovery he won both the British National Time Trial Championships and the British National Road Race Championships on the Isle of Man, becoming only the second rider to win both titles in the same year after David Millar achieved the same feat in 2007. These performances earned him a new contract with. He took one further victory, winning the opening stage of September's Giro della Toscana, having been overlooked for the British team for the road race at UCI Road World Championships in Norway. It would turn out to be the final victory for Cummings in his professional career.

Cummings endured a difficult 2018 season, recording no top-10 finishes, and suffering health issues with an injury to the head of his left fibula at the Tour of Austria, and breathing problems at the Critérium du Dauphiné. In 2019, Cummings finished in third place at the British National Time Trial Championships in Norfolk, and also finished in tenth place overall at the Arctic Race of Norway, but injury and illnesses continued to effect Cummings. Later in the year at the Tour of Britain – and having featured in the final selection on the fourth stage – on home roads in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Cummings was involved in a crash some 50 km from the finish of the fifth stage. He was later diagnosed with four fractured vertebrae in his back, ending his season.

Retirement, directeur sportif
In November 2019, Cummings announced his retirement from professional cycling.

In February 2021 Cummings announced that he was returning to Team Sky, since renamed as, joining the team's management as a development directeur sportif and coach. In December 2023, he was appointed as the team's director of racing from the 2024 season onwards.

Road
Source:


 * 1999
 * 1st MaillotReinoUnido.PNG Road race, National Junior Championships
 * 1st Eddie Soens Memorial Race


 * 2001
 * 10th Lincoln Grand Prix


 * 2003
 * 10th Overall Tour de Berlin


 * 2005
 * 2nd Road race, National Championships
 * 6th Grand Prix de Villers-Cotterêts


 * 2006
 * 2nd Trofeo Laigueglia
 * 4th Road race, Commonwealth Games


 * 2008 (2 pro wins)
 * 1st Coppa Bernocchi
 * 2nd Overall Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria
 * 1st Stage 2
 * 2nd Overall Danmark Rundt
 * 2nd Overall Tour of Britain


 * 2009
 * 1st Stage 3 Giro del Capo
 * 4th Coppa Bernocchi
 * 5th Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria
 * 7th Trofeo Laigueglia


 * 2010
 * 4th Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise


 * 2011 (1)
 * 2nd Time trial, National Championships
 * 2nd Overall Tour of Britain
 * 4th Overall Tour of Beijing
 * 7th Overall Volta ao Algarve
 * 1st Stage 3
 * 9th Overall Tour de Pologne
 * 9th Overall Tour Méditerranéen


 * 2012 (2)
 * 1st Stage 13 Vuelta a España
 * 1st Stage 5 Tour of Beijing


 * 2013
 * 1st Stage 2 (TTT) Tour of Qatar


 * 2014 (2)
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Tour Méditerranéen
 * 1st Stage 4 (ITT)
 * 2nd Overall Dubai Tour
 * 4th Overall Tour du Poitou-Charentes
 * 7th Time trial, Commonwealth Games
 * 8th Overall Circuit de la Sarthe


 * 2015 (2)
 * 1st Trofeo Andratx-Mirador d'Es Colomer
 * 1st Stage 14 Tour de France
 * 6th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
 * 6th Overall Circuit de la Sarthe


 * 2016 (5)
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Tour of Britain
 * 1st Stage 7 Tour de France
 * 1st Stage 4 Tirreno–Adriatico
 * 1st Stage 3 Tour of the Basque Country
 * 1st Stage 7 Criterium du Dauphiné


 * 2017 (3)
 * National Championships
 * 1st MaillotReinoUnido.PNG Road race
 * 1st MaillotReinoUnido.PNG Time trial
 * 1st Stage 1 Giro della Toscana
 * Jersey red number.svg Combativity award Stage 12 Tour de France


 * 2019
 * 3rd Time trial, National Championships
 * 10th Overall Arctic Race of Norway

Track

 * 2001
 * 1st MaillotReinoUnido.PNG Team pursuit, National Championships


 * 2004
 * 2nd Silver medal olympic.svg Team pursuit, Olympic Games


 * 2005
 * 1st Rainbow Jersey Track.svg Team pursuit, UCI World Championships
 * 1st MaillotReinoUnido.PNG Team pursuit, National Championships


 * 2006
 * Commonwealth Games
 * 1st Gold medal blank.svg Team pursuit
 * 3rd Bronze medal blank.svg Individual pursuit
 * 1st MaillotReinoUnido.PNG Team pursuit, National Championships
 * 2nd Silver medal uci.svg Team pursuit, UCI World Championships


 * 2007
 * UCI World Cup Classics
 * 1st Team pursuit, Sydney
 * 1st Team pursuit, Beijing