Steve Cummings, Ineos Grenadiers' director of racing, will not be present at the Vuelta a España, the final men’s Grand Tour of the year.
While Ineos say that he was never supposed to be at the Vuelta, Cummings’ absence on the ground for the race, which starts in Portugal on Saturday, means that he has now been left out of the team’s in-person race management group for all three Grand Tours during the 2024 season after he was not directly involved with the Giro d’Italia or Tour de France.
The 43-year-old was promoted to director of racing ahead of the 2024 season, after a shakeup of the team's management kickstarted by Rod Ellingworth's departure.
In 2023, Cummings was present at both the Tour and the Vuelta. In the former, Carlos Rodríguez was their highest finisher in fifth overall and the team won two stages, while in the latter the team failed to have an impact on general classification, but finished top-five on five different stages.
While it has not yet been officially confirmed, Cycling Weekly understands that Christian Knees will head up the British-registered team’s Vuelta DS pool. It is also understood that Cummings was supposed to return to on-the-ground DS work at the Deutschland Tour, which takes place from 21-24 August, but his programme is unknown.
Ineos Grenadiers will be spearheaded at the race by Rodríguez and Thymen Arensman, who will both be aiming for the podium at least, with Josh Tarling riding a Grand Tour for the first time.
When Cummings was not taken to the Tour, the team insisted that he was working on the race from home, while Zak Dempster was the lead directeur sportif on the road.
Viewers of the recent Tour de France: Unchained Netflix series spotted tension between Cummings and star rider Tom Pidcock when discussing rider leadership duties at last year's race, which led to speculation about their relationship. Neither will be at the Vuelta.
Pidcock told Cycling Weekly at the Tour team presentation that he felt Cummings absence would have a negligible impact on the team. "I don’t think it’ll have an impact," Pidcock said. "Things change, it’s not really for me to comment."
Ineos eventually finished the race without a stage win for the first time since 2014, with their main general classification hope, Rodríguez, finishing in seventh, 25 minutes down on the eventual winner, Tadej Pogačar.
