Tom Pidcock has said that Ineos Grenadiers will be "better" without the team’s director of racing, Steve Cummings, at this year’s Tour de France, after he was surprisingly left at home.
Despite Cummings' senior role in the team he has not travelled to the Grand Départ in Florence. Instead, Zak Dempster will be the British team's lead DS, supported by second DS Xavier Zandio Echaide.
Cummings' absence has come as a shock after he was instrumental in assembling the eight-man Ineos squad and race strategy.
A spokesperson for Ineos Grenadiers confirmed to Cycling Weekly that Cummings would be "supporting Zak and the team remotely" once the three-week Grand Tour begins on Saturday.
Pidcock told Cycling Weekly at the race's team presentation on Thursday evening that he felt Cummings absence would have no effect on the team. "I don’t think it’ll have an impact," Pidcock said. "Things change, it’s not really for me to comment."
He then went on to say that the team would be "better" without the former British champion, when asked if he thought things would be the same.
Viewers of the recent Tour de France: Unchained Netflix series spotted tension between the pair when discussing rider leadership duties at last year's race.
On Wednesday, Pidcock joked about the "bad guy" portrayal of him in the series, dismissing it as "drama."
Cycling Weekly understands from sources close to the team that the depiction of the relationship by the Netflix cameras did have some degree of accuracy. Sources also suggested that Pidcock has a big say in major decision making on the team.
John Allert, the team's CEO, said that there was "nothing to add" to the story and that he would not be drawn on the reasons behind Cummings' absence. He repeated the team's line that the DS will be supporting the squad remotely during the race.
"Steve’s still working on the Tour, he’s just not at the Tour," the Australian said. "He’s feeding stuff in, he’s part of a team, we’ve got a team of coaches and DSs and he’s obviously an important part of that."
However, Dempster said that he felt it would be difficult for the former Tour stage winner to play a big part in decisions from afar.
"I think that’s impossible," Dempster said. "For the moment I am the lead DS here and it’ll be me managing the race on behalf of the performance team. But for sure, he will have an input and he’s done a really good job building this journey so far and we go on with it."
Dempster went on to say that he had found out he would lead the team more than "a couple of weeks ago", but other reports have suggested that the decision was in fact only taken less than a week before the Tour began.
