From the back roads of Wirral to centre stage of Giro d’Italia

May 23 2007 by Birkenhead News

STEVE Cummings began cycling at the tender age of 14. Back then, he was a junior in the colours of Birkenhead North End.

But it was a man called Jack McAllister, who offered to take Cummings under his wing and introduce him to the world of road racing.

One weekend, McAllister took the teenager out on a 40-mile ride and a young Cummings turned up on mountain bike.

“I started out with Birkenhead North End,” recalls Steve. “I always liked cycling, so my dad took me to the cycling club where they met on a Thursday night.”

The Wirral born and bred Olympic medallist is still in tune with his routes and regularly trains on the peninsular.

“Two guys took me out. It was like 40-miles maximum. I was absolutely shattered when I got in,” he laughs. “The next week, someone phoned my dad and said they had a road bike they could lend me. I just carried on from there really.”

A normal training session for the 26-year-old, who lives with girlfriend Nicky in Heswall, involves cycling Wirral’s rural lanes and the little villages on his on his 60cm Discovery Trek Madone SSL, equipped with a 175mm cranks house and the SRM power system.

“I use it all the time. They are invaluable,” he reveals. “Generally, I train to my heart rate. The power figures tell me how well I’m going because I know what’s good for me and what’s not.

“If I’m doing intervals, I might train more to power because sometimes your heart rate takes a little longer to respond. When training, just rolling along doing steady rides, I train to my heart rate. I’ll be in the big ring and going quite quickly and my pulse won’t be that high.”

Steve’s route passes through rural lanes and the little villages, as he heads towards Ellesmere Port and Stanlow’s Shell refineries.

“I just like it, all that industry. I’m glad I’m riding past and not working in it,” he explains as he cycles up a climb toward Avanley, then Delamere Forest.

“I love Delamere,” he adds. “Normally I go out this way a few times a week at least.

“When I have three to four hours to do, I go out one side of Chester and then just start looping around. I’m running out of lanes now I just go further all the time. Last year, I did 180 kilometres in five hours.”

He heads to the famous Eureka Cafe at Two Mills, which has a bike shop and walls decorated with mementoes of Merseyside’s cycling history.

They include Chris Boardman’s celebrated Dauphine Libere leaders’ jersey and a photograph of Cummings winning the Eddie Soens event at Aintre.

Going along the Dee Estuary, Steve then heads back to Heswall. But just how does the young cyclist adapt from road to track and back?

“When I’m going really well on the road, going to the track is no problem,” explains Cummings, who has earned a reputation as ‘Mr Honest’. “A few days and I’m flying on the track. I’m then super-confident. But from the track back to the road, I find really difficult. For team pursuit, you train to a very narrow power band.

“It’s the kind of thing you don’t use that much on the road because when you do, you leave everyone behind.

“But you can only do a few seconds or minutes, so you end up being really zippy and you have only got so many of those efforts.”

Wirral News would like to thank Cycling Weekly for the use of their photographs and words. For a more detailed look at Steve’s route around Wirral, pick up a copy of Cycling Weekly’s The Very Best of Road Rides, available in WH Smiths priced £5.95.