Stephen Cummings Fighting for Place in Beijing

 

Posted July
By Larry Hickmott

Stephen may have started out on the track but in recent years he has made a name for himself on the road and is now torn between the two disciplines.

 

LATEST: Following the publication of this interview, Stephen was selected for the Olympics in the Road Race and Time Trial.

 

Fighting for a place on the plane to Beijing are many World Class riders and won of those is Stephen Cummings who has this year had a notable win on the road as well as other top 10 places including two in the Tour of Italy. Some achievements and an example of just how good this former British Junior Road Race champion is.

 

In the recent Tour of Italy, Stephen got himself on television quite a lot with an epic break in the mountains which is not what you expect from some one often labelled a so called ‘trackie’. Stephen though is a true all rounder, much more than a track rider as his performances on the road in the last three years have shown. Despite being a bit of a comic within in the team, Stephen is also quite modest and dismissed his celebrity status from that stage with a shrug of the shoulders.

 

This years Giro was his second Tour of Italy after he completed the same race last year when with ProTour team Discovery. His time in the peloton on the road has seen a number of fine performances and his fourth place on the 19th stage of this years race was one of his most determined. Stephen won a stage in the Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria at the start of the year and has also had many podium places in the last two years.

 

He is without a doubt an accomplished roadman. The former British Cycling Junior road race champion made the switch to the Track early on in his career when he had two paths to choose – under 23 road in France or with the senior track squad -- and since 2001 has focused on keeping his place in the track endurance squad where has won an Olympic medal along with World Championships in the Team Pursuit. He is however this year at a bit of a crossroads as he battles with the decision of whether to concentrate on the road or to continue keeping his place on the track team for this years Olympics.

Stephen (second from left) winning his stripes in 2005 at the Los Angeles World Track Championships. He then took time out to concentrate on the road and missed selection for the 2008 Track Worlds but is now trying hard for the Olympic Track and/or road team.

 

Road or track? It is a choice that may end up being made for him as the Wirral based tries for both the road or track (or both) team in Beijing. At the start of the year, with a  win on the road showing just how good his form was, he returned to the Manchester Velodrome and trained with the GB team to try and get a place at the Manchester World Championships.

 

He didn’t achieve that as he explains. “I failed to get into the Manchester Track Team by a small margin. A couple of days before the Worlds, I wasn’t really in the picture, but then just before the race, I found my track legs again and that gave me the belief to come back and do it again now”.

 

“Mentally, the easy thing for me would have been to go and do the Tour (de France) because I am confident I would have been able to earn a place in that team. But I have always wanted to do this (the Olympics) and it was a very difficult decision.”

 

His work on the track lately means he missed last weekend’s national road race championships but as he says “I made my decision to do this during the Giro when I had a chat with Dave Brailsford who was supportive.  Of course, I am torn between racing track and road and would love to have done the nationals, Otley, -- every race I could -- but you can’t and you have to pick. Hopefully I have made the right decision.”

 

In Athens 2004, Stephen was  really gutted at finishing second and felt the team should have won. “Ever since then, I have wanted to put that right. At the time, all of a sudden I improved by huge amounts and then I got frustrated a little bit with the rest of the team which was a bit stupid. Then I lost interest as it wasn’t happening for me and I was getting better on the road which I was enjoying more and more.”

 

“I needed that challenge”.

 

Missing the selection in Manchester 2007 (track worlds) also saw him having to sit on the sidelines and watch his teammates not only win Gold but also break the World Record. “That  was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do -- sit there and watch that. I don’t know if I could have done it as well but I could certainly have done a job in the team.”

 

“What that has done is make me want to really be part of the team. I didn’t want to be in a team fighting for bronze or silver because we have done that. I prefer to be fighting to get in a team that is winning rather than be in a team that is coming second.”

 

“Now when come back to the track, it seems to take longer to get my track legs. I am not struggling just mediocre and I think it’s the pedalling. I think I can do well on the road because of the power in my pedalling but it’s different on the track. This time though I have the time to get it right and I expect to get better and better. Before the Worlds, I only did the one track block and it wasn’t long enough for me so if I do get selected for the Olympics (track), with two track blocks, it will give me that little bit extra I need.”

 

Post Olympics
Stephen however is not giving up on the road and is also in line for selection for the Beijing Olympics on the road. His time trial in the Giro showed he can ride against the watch and perhaps that is an avenue the team will look at. We’ll find out on July 14 when the BOA announce who is going to the Olympics in Great Britain colours.

 

Should he get selected for Beijing on the track or road, as soon as the Olympics are over he will be heading back to Italy and preparing for the end of season races. After a victory already in 2008, his appetite for more is greater than ever. Stephen explained that this year’s Giro was much harder than the 2007 version. “The first week was hard, nervous and dangerous with dead dogs and water on the road that was like riding on ice. Last year there were more days when you knew it was going to be a bunch sprint.”

 

“The first week was pretty hard looking after Soler and then he went after stage 10 or so. After he left (due to a crash), the morale of the team was a bit low because we put so much into helping him and maybe lost a few opportunities of getting away in breaks  or setting up the finish for Gasporroto. After that we were struggling as we hit the mountains and most of us were not going well enough to do something – just surviving.”

 

“So it was about waiting for a good opportunity. I thought about stage 17 or 18 but we had a day off before them and that killed me and for two days I was really bad. Then, on stage 19 I was better and I just wanted to be in the breakaway. So I started in the front and followed the moves.”

 

“None of us (in Barloworld) could have got up there in the results if we’d just stayed in the peloton and waited for the finish so it was about trying to get in a break. I was with Efimkin after the top of the second climb and we did the descent together and then we started the next climb but I couldn’t climb as quick as he was going so I just went at my own pace. Then Di Luca went past me with a  k to go looking pretty good, pretty fresh!"

 

Stephen finished fourth and during the stage, found himself on TV quite a bit which never does a rider’s reputation any harm.The next day though, Steve was in his words, completely wasted and at the back of the gruppetto all day which he says has never happened to him before. “I was struggling so much.” Then the day after Stephen was 8th (same time as the sixth rider) in the final time trial. “That was fantastic and a shock really” he says of that ride.

The Team Time Trial and Stephen in TT mode. The Wirral rider is at home doing this on the track or road.

 

“After that TT, a lot of people looked at the result and saw three teams pursuiters (Bradley, Steve and Geraint Thomas) up there and Cav not far off  (36th) and the prominence of the British track team in the peloton. It had been a very long three weeks on the road in the Giro and to recover, Stephen had a week off and tried to take it easy. There was no racing except for one criterium with Mark Cavendish who won. Then Stephen headed for a GB Track Team training camp in Italy which he says was tough mentally even though he knew it was work that needed to be done.

 

After the training camp in Italy, it was back to Manchester for two weeks track work and when he arrived he felt fatigued but admits that the Track Camp will probably help him freshen up after so many long days on the road.

“It’s also good to be back with the guys where we have a good atmosphere in the team. Everyone is laughing and joking and that’s the only way. We do have our special banter.”

 

An example of the respect they have for each other is how much Stephen thinks of Barloworld and GB teammate Geraint Thomas. Ironically enough, one of the riders who kept Stephen out of the team for the Manchester World Track Championships was Geraint who rode the Giro with Stephen and shares an apartment with him.
 
“We get on well and he’s classy on the bike as well as funny off it. I think he’s mature beyond his years on the bike and it’s good to race with him”.

 

Talking about the renewing of his Barloworld contract, Stephen admits he got offered a better contract financially from another team but turned it away because of the opportunities he gets on the road at Barloworld which he feels suits him.

 

“If you look at the management, it is the same that was in charge of Saeco and they won Giro’s and with Cippollini, they won a lot of races. The director Volpi worked with Giancarlo's Ferretti's Fassa Bortolo team and they were all always aggressive, real racers, which is good.”

 

“We get treated well and they like our laid back approach which is still business like. While the Italians are really emotional, we just get up and do the job. Before the Team Time Trial, G (Geraint) and I were in the bus until half an hour to go and then we just went over and started to warm up where as the others had already been warming up for half an hour and were panicking a bit.”

 

Looking ahead, where does he see himself achieving his goals on the road? “Once the Olympics are out of the way, I’d like to do the Giro and Tour and a few classics. Leige (Bastogne-Leige) perhaps and Milan San Remo. If I get myself in good shape then I think I can do well in those type of classics, the physical classics -- not the ones where you rely on position like Roubaix and stuff.”

 

Stephen explained that not being either a sprinter or climber limits the number of victories he can get. For him, the opportunities lie in getting in that right break and winning from a small group just as he did at the start of the year.

Fourth on a stage in the Giro -- Stephen crosses the line after a long day in the saddle.

 

By way of example, he told us how he did it in the Giro and made that break on stage 19. “I pick a certain team (not giving away secrets here Steve isn’t!) and follow them about because a break away won’t go away until they are happy with the combination.”

 

“The moment they ease back a bit, you have to go but that might happen two or three times before the break sticks. I never attack, I just follow and look at the combinations. You never go in a break with a rider who is high up on GC because you know it won’t stay away.”

 

“You have to be thinking all the time, staying at the front which is a skill, and keep watching for the right combination and then have the power to get to it.”

 

“The break in the Giro went after 50k and we were flat out for an hour and I was doing as much as the person doing the least — just enough because if the peloton doesn’t want the break to stay away, it won’t no matter how hard you ride.”

 

“When we got to the climbs Kiryienka rode pretty much at the front and I was dropped about 3k from the top and on the descent, I took a few risks and had my foot out three times getting back on in the wet on a really technical descent.”

 

“Then we were doing through and off again except for a few guys who had to wait for their team leaders and I saw one of them in tears after the stage because he knew he had a good chance of a stage victory. Had I been with Discovery like I was last year, that may have been me having to wait.”

Far from a velodrome, Stephen has settled in well to life in the peloton.

 

Away from home
After not having been back to his home on the Wirral for many months, Stephen is keen to get some where to live in Italy. “I do want to be permanent in Italy as its the best place for a bike rider. I’m comfortable there and get a lot from the roads there and the food. The academy boys are also only 200 metres from the square where I want to be.”

 

Stephen is also keen to continue his work with Max Sciandri. “He has been fantastic and perhaps I have been lacking a mentor like him. In my career, I have always had some one like a rider to help me and I lost that a bit for a while. Max though is really good and stops me over training for one thing!”

 

Our thanks to Stephen for his time and wish him well in his quest to not only make the GB team for the Olympics, but also on the road in the coming months and years.

 

Note: British Cycling will bring you the team for the Olympics as soon as it is announced with a  special section on the British Cycling website.

 

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