“Team Circus continues”: Tom Pidcock dropped by Ineos due to risk of bonus payout claims Brian Smith, who says there’s “no fun in numbers-driven cycling anymore” as “gagged” Steve Cummings confirms exit; Everesting on a unicycle + more on the live blog

Just when you thought a week would go by without some Ineos-related drama (in cycling at least), think again.

Last night, after months of speculation about his future at the team, director of racing Steve Cummings confirmed his departure from the Ineos Grenadiers, writing on LinkedIn that he had “reached a decision to step away” from the British team.

Two-time Tour de France stage winner Cummings, who was promoted to a senior management role at Ineos at the end of 2023, was last seen at a race in June at the Critérium du Dauphiné (where he had an infamous and tetchy stand-off with our YouTuber-in-chief Jamie over us capturing footage of the new Pinarello Dogma).

> road.cc CANCELLED by Ineos! What happened when we tried to take pics of the new Pinarello Dogma

He was then left out of the team’s Tour de France DS line-up, amid reports of internal tension, especially with star rider Tom Pidcock, and didn’t appear in the Ineos team car, or in any capacity at any race, for the remainder of this season.

However, until now there has been little official confirmation about Cummings’ position within the team, and he was notably left out of last month’s press release detailing the latest structural and staff changes at the squad, which announced the arrival of his former Sky teammate Kurt-Asle Arvesen as a sport director.

(Ross Cooke/INEOS Grenadiers)

But on Tuesday evening, Cummings decided to finally set the record straight.

“I’m aware there has been some speculation so I just wanted to clarify my situation,” the 43-year-old posted on LinkedIn, which also includes confirmation that he departed Ineos this month, while listing his current position as ‘race coach/sports director’ as “TBC”.

“I’ve reached the decision to step away from Ineos,” he continued. “This may seem like a big move, but I’m now ready to begin a new phase of my career. It’s been a privilege to work with such a talented group of riders and staff for the last four years. I’d really like to take this opportunity to thank them for their support and dedication.

“I’ve always enjoyed and thrived working in a high-performance environment and I will continue to have significant involvement in the sport. My focus is now on a new challenge within professional cycling.”

> “I’ve had a tricky year working with them. And once I was leaving, it was even trickier”: Soudal Quick-Step-bound Ethan Hayter latest to publicly criticise Ineos Grenadiers, claiming British team “could do with a couple of changes”

Cummings’ confirmation marks the culmination of a turbulent year for the Ineos Grenadiers – the least successful in the team’s 15-year history – which saw departing figures such as Dan Bigham and Ethan Hayter publicly criticise the team and the approach of its management, while Tom Pidcock also questioned Cummings’ input at the Tour, before claiming that Ineos “don’t help me to perform at my best” amid a number of internal issues.

(Will Palmer/SWpix.com)

Pidcock was then dramatically dropped at the last minute from their Il Lombardia line-up – a decision the team’s higher ups confirmed was not based on form – kicking off what has become a protracted and complicated transfer saga (which, for the moment at least, appears to have cooled after the Olympic mountain bike champion was spotted with his teammates watching Ineos-run Manchester United’s match with Chelsea at the weekend. The poor fella).

All of these shenanigans – and Cummings’ departure – has prompted two-time British champion Brian Smith to share his concerns with the squad he not so tactfully described as “Team Circus” in a withering Twitter thread this morning.

 (Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com)

In the lengthy post, Eurosport commentator Smith claimed that the 2016 Tour of Britain winner was “gagged” during his time as DS at the squad and that Pidcock was dropped from Il Lombardia over fears Ineos would have to pay him a performance bonus following a good result.

“No real surprise to see Steve Cummings leave Team Ineos,” Smith, who worked with Cummings when the Scot was general manager of MTN-Qhubeka (which has now morphed into Q36.5) during the mid-2010s, wrote.

“Must be hard to do your job when gagged for most of the year. One of their biggest assets with be a major boost for any other team.”

> “People around Tom Pidcock don’t help,” says Geraint Thomas, as 2018 Tour de France winner weighs in on “c*** situation” and “bull****” at Ineos after Il Lombardia deselection drama

Turning to the Pidcock saga, Smith said: “Team Circus continues, after allowing your marquee rider to leave the team while willing to pay 20 per cent of his salary then doing a U-turn to keep him. Not sure this is over.

“Ivan Glasenberg has invested in Q36.5 and owns Pinarello. A match for Pidcock who was keen on the move.

“These decisions were helped by Team Circus pulling Pidcock from Lombardia. Why you may ask? Had the form, thought he could win but did not want to risk paying the high bonus.

“Talking about bonuses. This thwarted the signing of Castrillo from Kern Pharma,” he added, referencing double Vuelta winner Pablo Castrillo’s move to Movistar this winter, after reports he was set to sign a deal with Ineos before his breakthrough ride in Spain.

(Elliot Keen/British Cycling/via SWpix.com)

Moving onto the changes within the sport over the past few years, and its apparent reliance on numbers, former Motorola pro Smith said: “There is no fun in cycling teams anymore. Science has killed this. Robotic riders and robotic sports directors.

“Gone are the GRINTA [Italian for ‘guts’] days. Riders now know what they can achieve, what they are up against and turn up at races in a poor mental health state.

“That’s what numbers do to riders. The mental state of a rider is now being left at the side of the road because of the numbers game.

“Altitude, haemoglobin muscle testing, scientists seem to be the way forward. If a rider is not happy then you are flogging a dead horse.

“This is where a team needs people like Steve Cummings and not more personnel with letters after their name.”

While the rest of the United States were busy bracing themselves for today’s presidential election results (I promise that’ll be the last time I mention it all day), one student from the University of Virginia decided to distract himself by trying to break an Everesting world record… on a unicycle.

The endurance craze that swept the cycling world during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, Everesting – just in case you forgot – sees cyclists with quite a bit of time on their hands pick any hill they like and ride up it over and over again, with no breaks, until they hit an accumulated elevation of 8,848m, the height of (surprise) Mount Everest.

Despite the sheer difficulty – never mind the mind-numbing tediousness – of such an endeavour, Everesting became popular among some of the best cyclists on the planet in the early part of this decade, with Phil Gaimon, Lachlan Morton, Alberto Contador, and Emma Pooley all holding the men or women’s world records at some point, until Ronan McLaughlin and Illi Gardner came along to smash the record out of the park.

> Can you do an Everesting on no training? Trying to ride 8,848m of elevation in one day

However, while McLaughlin and Gardner’s times (6 hours 41 and 8 hours 3 minutes, respectively) look unbeatable, there’s one Everesting marker that still appeared within reach – the unicycle record.

 (Jack Looney)

Yes, that’s right – back in 2018, before day-long hill repeats became a fad, Austrian cyclist Ben Soja became the only person to complete the Everesting challenge on one wheel, finishing his Los Angeles-based ride in 23 hours.

And until this week, Soja was the only unicycling Everester in history (for good reason, if we’re honest). Until, that is, Mason Allen came along.

A mountain bike racer and road cyclist, University of Virginia student Allen has dabbled in unicycling in recent years, completing the 25-mile MonsterCross unicycle race earlier this year.

 (Jack Looney)

And on Saturday, he added his name to the history books, completing an unthinkable 130 laps of his university’s Observatory Hill Loop Road (which only features about 220ft of elevation, hence the insanely high number of laps) to reach that golden 8,848m marker.

Covering a total of 119.85 miles, Allen finished his one wheeled ride in 21 hours and nine minutes, smashing Soja’s previous record by almost two hours.

 (Jack Looney)

“Honestly still feels surreal at this point,” he wrote on Instagram this week.

“I want to thank everybody who came out, even if just to cheer for a lap or two. It may have seemed small, but the mental boost from having people there cannot be overstated.”

Now that calls for a chapeau.

> Pro cycling team hit out at SRAM “problems”, claim chains “fail” when riders “put a lot of force on the pedals”