Steve Cummings

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 both the Olympics and the Cycling World Championships.
Biography
Cummings was born in Clatterbridge on the Wirral Peninsula in Northwest England and grew up in the nearby village of Pensby. 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 in 46 years that a junior has won. 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.
In 2006 he rode for and came second in the Trofeo Laigueglia to Alessandro Ballan of . In 2007 he switched to before moving to in 2008.
His first professional win was in 2008, stage 2 of the Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria.
In February 2021 Cummings announced that he was returning to Team Sky in its current incarnation as , joining the team's management as a development directeur sportif and coach.
Team Sky (2010–11)
Cummings joined new British-based for the 2010 season.
In 2011, racing with Sky, he had arguably his most successful professional race to date at the 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 time-trial; he finished the tour in seventh place.
In September, Cummings finished second overall in the Tour of Britain. Later that month he announced he would join for the 2012 season.
Cummings was part of the Great Britain team that helped Mark Cavendish win the men's road race at the 2011 UCI Road World Championships. He then finished 4th overall in the first Tour of Beijing.
BMC Racing Team (2012–15)
In February 2012, 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 2012 Vuelta a España, he gained his first Grand Tour 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 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.
MTN–Qhubeka/Dimension Data (2015–19)
In October 2014, Cummings announced that he would be joining for the 2015 season.
On 18 July 2015, Cummings won stage 14 of the Tour de France, beating French riders Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet in Mende, after the Côte de la Croix Neuve category 2 climb. It was the first Tour de France stage win for both Cummings and his African team , fittingly coming on Mandela Day. On 8 July 2016, Cummings took another breakaway win in the Tour de France, this time on Stage 7, with a winning margin of 65 seconds over Daryl Impey and Daniel Navarro.
In July 2016 he was added to Great Britain's Olympic cycling team for the Summer Olympics, replacing Peter Kennaugh. Cummings took what British journalist William Fotheringham considered to be the most important stage race victory of his career up to that date at the Tour of Britain in September 2016. He finished 2nd on stage 2 in Kendal, Cumbria, gaining a minute over most of his rivals. He subsequently moved into the lead on stage 6 and held this position for the remaining two days.
During the 2017 Tour of the Basque Country Cummings crashed heavily and required surgery. 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.
In November 2019, Cummings announced his retirement from professional cycling.
Major results
Road
1999
1st Road race, National Junior Championships
1st Eddie Soens Memorial Race
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 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 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 Road race
1st Time trial
1st Stage 1 Giro della Toscana
Combativity award Stage 12 Tour de France
2019
3rd Time trial, National Championships
10th Overall Arctic Race of Norway
Grand Tour general classification results timeline
Track
2001
1st Team pursuit, National Championships
2004
2nd Team pursuit, Olympic Games
2005
1st Team pursuit, UCI World Championships
1st Team pursuit, National Championships
2006
Commonwealth Games
1st Team pursuit
3rd Individual pursuit
1st Team pursuit, National Championships
2nd Team pursuit, UCI World Championships
2007
1st Team pursuit, UCI World Cup Classics, Sydney
References
External links
1981 births
Living people
British male cyclists
English male cyclists
Cyclists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England
Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England
Cyclists at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Cyclists at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Cyclists at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain
Olympic cyclists for Great Britain
Olympic medalists in cycling
British Tour de France stage winners
British Vuelta a España stage winners
Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Sportspeople from Bebington
Cyclists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games
UCI Track Cycling World Champions (men)
Commonwealth Games medallists in cycling
British cycling road race champions
English track cyclists
Directeur sportifs
Sportspeople from Wirral
Medallists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games