Steve Cummings w Josie Perry and Jamie Pringle

Faster with Dr Hutch

In this show I’m talking to Steve Cummings – former National Champion, Tour of Britain winner and double Tour de France stage winner. If you don’t remember his stunning outwitting of both Romain Bardet and Thibaut Pinot for the stage win at Mende in 2015 you have no cycling soul.

But we’re not just talking about the elation of putting your arms in the air. We’re talking about how exactly you achieve that sort of victory. How do you get into the day’s breakaway in the first place, how do you save energy all stage as you wait for the last few kilometres, and what sort of power numbers do you need to be able to hit in the finale if you’re going to bring it home?

Before you do any of that, though, how do you train for it? We’ll talk about Steve’s shed of pain in Tuscany, just big enough for a turbo trainer and a fan, where the foundations of much of his success was laid with an austerity that would have done credit to Rocky.

He also tells me about how you have to be clever. It’s not enough to have the legs. You need to understand everything that’s going on around you and make things, like the aerodynamics of yourself and others, work your way.

And there’s some context for Steve’s abilities from physiologist Jamie Pringle and psychologist Josie Perry, who between them help explain just how remarkable a rider Cummings is.

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