- I'm here on the rest day of the Tour de France,
about to take a suitcase tour with none other than
double Tour de France stage winner and British road champion
let alone TT champion, Steve Cummings of Dimension Data.
Straight away, I don't even need to knock.
Typical cyclist, left the key in the door.
Steve, are you decent?
- [Steve] Yeah.
- Yeah, mate you're alright.
Your key was in the door there, bud.
Steve, thanks for letting us
have a little nosy around your suitcase.
It's been a dramatic Tour de France so far, hasn't it?
Our first rest day.
First and foremost, how's the legs?
- The legs are good, getting better.
I felt better yesterday than two days ago,
and still need to find a little bit more
but hopefully it'll come.
- Well you've got a single room, haven't you, it's not very
often we see that in suitcase tours.
Generally riders are doubled up
so do you prefer to have a single room?
- Yeah, I like to be on my own, I've been lucky this tour
I've been on my own pretty much all the way except
when Cav went home and then I went in the room with Bernie.
- Okay.
- Bernie, apparently he snores but I didn't hear it.
- (laughter) Alright, fair enough.
Well let's get down to what you carry on a Grand Tour.
First off, are you somebody who likes to
pack loads of things or are you a bit minimalist
cause there seems to be a fair bit in here.
- As little as I can get away with, but I try to
prepare for all eventualities, you never know.
- Because the Tour pretty much does throw
everything at you, doesn't it?
- Yeah, it can do, I just like to be prepared.
- Okay, well let's start of with this, then
just have a rummage through.
What have we got?
Obviously, well, I'll answer the question.
Loads of freshly minted British Champions kit as well.
- [Steve] Yeah, nice different weights jerseys.
This is what I kind of like at the Tour.
This kind of jersey that's really thin, really thin and
then it gets wet and it's still pretty light when it's wet.
- Okay, so how many different permutations of road jersey
have you got then, in total, would you bring on--
- I think I've got one, two, three, four, five I've got.
- [Matt] Okay, start on this side.
- This is just race gloves.
Loads of race gloves.
- So just a bag full of gloves?
- Well, we kind of received them all here, yeah.
- Oh right, okay.
- Normally take two or three pairs but we
received them all here so I've got about ten pairs.
Socks.
- [Matt] We're talking about socks, I mean it's an
opportunity to ask you, black or white socks?
What's the score?
- That's my favourite sock.
- That's your favourite sock.
- It's just like...
- That's Gaerne it's your shoe, the shoe--
- Yeah, just classic, traditional, white,
not too high cycling sock.
- [Matt] Okay what else have we got in here?
- [Steve] Vests, all different.
Again, like different weights of vests.
It's a special one in here.
It's, you know the symbol of Qhubeka?
- Yeah.
- It's just kind of nice, kind of...
- Oh that's really nice, isn't it?
- Yeah, kind of reminds us, you know
the meaning of our team, really.
I like that. - Fantastic.
Good stuff.
- [Steve] Little note pad from Liege.
I like to make notes.
- What sort of notes, without being too personal,
what do you like to jot down?
- You know, like shopping lists.
(laughter)
- Okay, right.
Shopping lists.
- I don't know what this is.
Oh this was when me and my wife
we were designing something for the house.
- [Matt] "Set back," oh, "tip saddle 75..."
- [Steve] Yeah, this is just a few bike measurements.
- Ah, so the answer, you're a saddle bag man then.
- Yeah, I am
- That goes on the saddle so you're
not a back pocket man, you are saddle bag.
Steve Cummings, saddle bag, you heard it here.
Okay, I am as well so don't worry.
And Lloydie.
- Socks, casual socks, underpants.
I like different weight, you know I'm
a bit of a fussy underpants guy.
(laughter)
- Do you carry enough underpants for the Tour,
or do you have a wash.
- Different weights, you know
different weights (laughs) depends on the weather.
- That's the first I've ever heard a rider have
different weights of underpants.
(Steve laughs) That's why he's such a successful bike rider.
Marginal underwear, for crying out loud.
- This was a white skinsuit but it's gotten...
- Oh is this from stage nine?
- This was from, it's still a bit damp but
it's kind of gone grey now.
- It's gone a bit, that's the only thing.
As beautiful as the National Champs kit is,
that's probably never gonna be white again is it?
- No.
- So I've still got some other stuff and
do you mind if I just take these out?
- [Steve] You can eat a few waffles.
- Do you mind if I have a rice cake?
- (laughs) Have a rice cake.
- Carry on, Steve, just show us what's in the bag.
- Oakleys.
- So you're pretty much, you do wear sunglasses all the time
maybe just take them off for the climbs don't you?
- Yeah, yesterday I had a new pair
and I somehow managed to drop them.
I was pretty gutted.
- Oh no, you lost a brand new pair of Oakleys on the--
- On the Grand Colombier, I was gonna go back and get them.
- I would've doubled back, I'm sorry.
- (laughter) No, no, I was on a steep bit,
you wouldn't have.
- Fair enough, no, okay.
Plenty of pairs of Oakleys, and of course they
sponsor the team as well, don't they?
- Yeah, all Oakleys.
Shorts, pyjamas.
- [Matt] Oh, you're a pyjamas man, are you?
- [Steve] Yeah, just a pair of pyjamas.
- Oh, just the bottom half, okay.
They look pretty relaxed actually, mate.
- [Steve] More skinsuits.
- This is the proper TT skinsuit?
- No, this is the TT one.
This is the fast, the super fast TT.
- Oh, wow.
- [Steve] And when you look at it, you think
how do you get in and out?
- [Matt] I was gonna say, that is pretty micro isn't it?
- [Steve] It's pretty aero, but you can't breathe,
that's the only problem.
(laughter)
- Wow, mate.
And some other intriguing things that I've seen.
What, what...
- Well, when I came to the tour--
- What's this?
- When I came to the tour,
I travel with my own food from home
so that's why I've got that.
I don't want to be hungry.
- So that's just there for any eventuality,
the bus is delayed or something like that.
- Yeah, yeah.
- It's good to also be self-sufficient I guess, isn't it?
- Yeah, I like that.
I don't like to rely on too many people.
This is when my daughter comes around we play...
- That's genius.
- We play cycling games.
(laughter)
- [Matt] That's cool.
- Here is, this is like extreme weather kind of kit.
So I've got these for your hands.
- [Matt] Alright, okay.
- [Steve] I carry them all season.
I carry them all season so it's like,
for example Liege last year when it was freezing cold
maybe I'd use something like that.
- When Wout Poels won, it was awful wasn't it?
- Pais Basque, but you'd never need this at the Tour.
- So would you have this maybe in the car, then
that you'd ask one of the mechanic, or--
- If it was gonna be bad, yeah.
- Okay.
- I won't leave it in the car
because things like that go missing.
- Oh right, okay.
- [Steve] And then I've got super thick gloves as well,
which do me in all weathers.
Never get cold hands.
Bit more coffee.
- [Matt] Oh, some coffee, let's have a little look.
We haven't properly talked coffee yet.
I understand somebody's given you this stuff
but you've got an Aeropress that you carry around
on the Tour as well.
A lot of riders do carry their own
coffee making facilities, don't they?
- [Steve] Yeah, I'm not as pedantic as some people.
- How many cups of coffee, sort of pre-race
do you normally have then, Steve,
what's your kind of pre-race strategy, will it depend
if you're gonna go for an early one?
- Yeah, I'll have, in the morning maybe I'd have
one of them and one espresso.
On the bus, one espresso.
If I really wanna go, maybe two espressos.
Push the bottle, go crazy.
- So if anybody wants to know what your plans are...
- Yeah, I don't go overboard with caffeine
cause for me it's always about trying to sleep as well.
There's a fine balance, you don't want to
overdo the caffeine.
- [Matt] What else have we got?
- Some measuring spoons if you wanna bake a cake.
(laughter)
- He's got it all.
- Allen keys.
In case you want a beer, bar for doing beer.
- [Matt] Dan will be so happy.
- [Steve] You need that, you know.
In case GCN come and visit you.
(laughter)
Chocolate.
In case GCN comes, not for me.
- [Matt] Okay.
Well Steve, thank you very much.
If you don't mind, I've get to get going
so I won't help you pack your suitcase
if that's alright.
No, seriously, best of luck
for the rest of the Tour de France.
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