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The youngest member of the Great Britain Team Pursuit squad, Wirral rider Steven Cummings made his Olympic debut this morning (August 22) in Athens 10 years after getting involved in the sport of cycle racing. Steve is really thrilled to make the selection for the Olympics and feels good that his hard work has at last paid off. Steve said :"Yes I have been frustrated at time for various reasons. Being a member of the British team for the last three years I have had a lot of ups and downs but the faith and confidence my girlfriend Nicky, my family, friends, loyal sponsors and British Cycling has been amazing and I now feel I am in the form of my life for the team pursuit. I am looking forward to hopefully winning Britain's first Gold medal ever in that event -- for them as much as for myself. Of course any medal would be great in my first Olympics but in all honesty, it is the Gold that really counts." His UK sponsor Sport & Publicity said : "Steve has always been a huge talent, his record speaks for itself especially his incredible performances as a junior and more recently with the team pursuit lads. When he has raced for us in the UK and abroad this year he has won most of his races or finished second which incidentally is a word he doesn't appreciate, but hey that's Steve. He is a pleasure to work with and his easy manner should never be confused with his determination to make it to the very top." Steve's role in the team as the newcomer, if you can call someone who has been in the team for three years that, has been as a reserve. In Melbourne he rode the early rounds but was not chosen for the final as fresh riders are brought in. Everyone in the team knows though that he played a vital part in that competition. I remember the other members of the team walking up to the podium and seeing Steve in 'civies', camera in hand, looking for a position to get picture of the guys getting their medals. And then on the podium, the other riders picked Steve out in the crowd and started making hand gestures as Steve took his photos.For sure as he gets older and stronger, his role will change and soon it will be him on the podium getting the medals. In Athens, Steve got to do both rides on the opening day of the event, and was part of the team that went under four minutes for the first time. That must have been a great buzz for the young rider as it would have been for all of them. As a young teenager, Steven's interest in the sport came from watching the Tour de France and enjoying rides with the 'North End'. He soon developed into a handy road rider, coached from the age of 15 by Chris Boardman's father who he still talks to regularly today. Steven was soon the British Junior road race champion and then as he came into the senior ranks, it was decision time. He had the choice of going to France and riding the road or joining the endurance track squad. He chose the latter. Back in his junior days he says "as a junior, I was always best on the road. Like I did the Track Worlds and I think I was something like 14th in the Pursuit. But when I moved up to the senior ranks, I struggled. "So I elected to go to the track squad. I don't know why, but it was probably because they had just had all that success in Sydney (bronze) and I had a chance to be a part of it. Since then, they've been really good to me and its great to be with these older riders who I can learn from."
Asked if he is overawed by the quality of the riders in the team, he replied, "at first I was, yeah. There was Chris Newton there for example who was always winning everything and so yeah but I'm not overawed now. Not at all." Athens has been a big goal for him for a long time, since Antwerp in 2001 really, since he started with the team. But the road to Athens, as Steven admits has been up and down, and it was touch and go whether he would get to go but as he says ... "I'm going better than ever now". One of his team mates, Bryan Steel, the elder statesman of the team who rode his first Olympics in Barcelona (1992) and has been to every Olympic's since, was full of praise for the young rider saying that everyone in the team is going as well as each other and that Steven's commitment to helping the team is second to none. Steven in the past has had to over come many obstacles and said "I have been too relaxed about it all and was just cruising for a long time. In Copehagen (2002), I was going really well there and then after that I had a lot of difficulties away from cycling and I found it hard to focus. Then this year I have done some work with Steve Peters (GB consultant) and he's really helped me and managed to turn it round." It was when a very close friend of Steve's died that life started to get complicated for him. "I was really low and wasn't able to get out on my bike or anything" he admits but since then he has been able to turn things around and its looking good for him in Athens. The fact that all six in the Team Pursuit squad have been riding well is a good thing Steve says, and the push has been on for all them to be riding well to make the team on the track. An example of just how good they are riding, in the opening round, although GB may not have the strength in depth that the Aussies do, we still had the luxury of leaving out the two strongest individual pursuiters, Bradley Wiggins (Athens Gold medalist) and Rob Hayles (4th) , and still qualify second with more left in the tank if the faces of the riders is anything to go by on the TV pictures. Giving an insight into what its like in the line up on the track, Steve explained that "everyone is going so well, you can't actually notice who is going better than the other and that it's only when you look at the lap splits later that you can tell who has been the quickest." The 23 year old has now done three World Track Championships before the Olympics which means he too like the others in the team has a huge amount of experience which will be great help in the biggest competition of all. Whilst agreeing that it's a great achievement for someone so young to make the team for Athens, he adds "I feel like I have been under achieving until now, certainly in the last year and this is just the time to put it right." One of the key qualities for a GB rider in the team pursuit besides having the talent to ride the bike that quick (60kph and faster), is to have the mental strength not to let a gap open up in front of you no matter how much you are hurting because doing so could cause the team to explode on the track if there are riders behind you and thus such a mistake could throw away a chance of a medal in a major competition. Steve apparently has the right attitude in this respect, knowing just how important it is to stay on the wheel in front. As Bryan Steel describes it -- 'to die before letting that wheel go'. Asked about it, Steve explains why he feels he has that ability by saying… "I never really think of myself -- I always think of other people -- and so I am scared of letting my team down. It just doesn't enter your head to let the wheel go. That more than anything is what made me nervous in this event. Letting people down because if you fail, you're letting three or four other people down. The whole team in fact." So does he feel a pressure with that? "I did but not now because I know I can only do my best, and that is all I can do and if I do my best, the wheel in front won't go" he said with confidence.
Above: Steve in the World Championships gives it full gas as he leads the team home in a round of the Team Pursuit. Steve is of course now in the 'village' in Athens and if his performance on the track this morning is anything to go, he is handling the experience really well, but asked before he left for Athens did he think he would be overawed by it, he answered "Not really because I have done the Track Worlds, Commonwealth Games and stuff so I am not nervous here but I think when I get to Athens and see how huge it is, that's when it may hit me. To be honest, I'm just looking forward to it and can't wait to get there really." Right: Riding for Great Britain in the Lincoln Grand Prix road race. Asked if the problems in the sport worry him and put him off, he replies "the doping stuff is horrible but I try not think about these issues and all that. I'd still like to do the road to see how I fare. We did a Tour in Germany and I got a battering in that but that was a hilly race and I'm not a hill climber. I certainly feel I could a job for people which I like doing. Its just getting the opportunity." He certainly knows how to win and although he admits his victories here in the UK don't get recognised he was proud of the one in Otley this year. "I was pleased with Otley because everyone was there and I thought I won really well. I haven't had a ride like for years and its something I should have been doing more often. It's a confidence thing." After his ride this morning in Athens, that too should give him a lot of confidence and who knows where the success of the team will lead him but at such a young age, Steven Cummings has a few Olympics left in him yet and he only has to look at Bryan Steel to see that. Good luck to Steven and all the lads in the Team Pursuit in Athens. Believe! Any more details about Steve please contact: GREAT BRITAIN OLYMPIC TEAM IN BREIF Rider (potential events) Oli Beckingsale (Mens Mountain Biking) Nicole Cooke (Women's Road Race) Steve Cummings: (Team Pursuit) Stuart Dangerfield: (Men's Road Time Trial) Emma Davies: (Womens Individual Pursuit/Womens Points Race) Ross Edgar: (Sprint, Keirin) Roger Hammond: (Mens Road Race) Rob Hayles: (Mens Individual Pursuit/Team Pursuit/Madison) Rachel Heal: (Womens Road Race) Chris Hoy: (Kilo/Team Sprint) Jeremy Hunt: (Mens Road Race) Liam Killeen: (Mens Mountain Biking) Craig MacLean: (Kilo/Team Sprint) Paul Manning: (Mens Individual Pursuit/Team Pursuit) Chris Newton: (Team Pursuit/Mens Points Race) Victoria Pendleton: (500TT/Womens Sprint) Jason Queally: (Kilo/Team Sprint) Jamie Staff: (Kilo, Team Sprint, Keirin) Bryan Steel: (Team Pursuit) Sara Symington: (Womens Road Race) Charly Wegalius: (Mens Road Race) Bradley Wiggins: (Individual Pursuit/Team Pursuit/Madison) Julian Winn: (Mens Road Race)
The Great Britain Cycling Team for the Paralympics Tandems
(click for bios) Aileen
McGlynn - 22.06.73/Glasgow Ian
Sharpe - 27.10.70/Ramsey, Isle of Man Solos Gary Williams - 05.03.68/Bickerstaffe, Lancs
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Right:
The Team Pursuit riders with their World Championship Silver medals
in Melbourne this year, show they haven't forgotten about a vital part
of their team left to watch the presentation from the crowd of photographers
and onlookers (hurry up Steve and get the shot!)...
Finally
we spoke about his future in the sport. After Athens, Bryan Steel is
one rider who has said he will retire so the team will need Steve's
talent but the young rider still harbours an ambition to be a professional
in Europe. He says of his future on the track, "I give it 100 percent
every session and in every competition and where ever they gets me,
I'll be happy." And the road I asked? "That's something I have always
wanted to do but I'm not sure whether its too late now but the season's
changing around now so perhaps I'll get a chance".