THE SHORT ANSWER
Steve Cummings, olympic medallist, two-time tour de france stage winner, has appeared on the Roadman Cycling Podcast. Here's where Cummings lands on periodisation. The positions below are drawn from those conversations, quoted directly.
WHO IS STEVE CUMMINGS?
Steve Cummings built a long WorldTour career — Olympic track medals, stage wins at the Tour de France and the Vuelta, and a reputation as the peloton's great breakaway tactician — by doing things his own way. He tweaked nutrition, training and preparation to fit himself rather than following any programme as gospel. For the self-coached amateur, Cummings is the case study in disciplined individualism: experiment seriously, keep what works for your body, and know when to revert.
CUMMINGS ON PERIODISATION
Cummings’s key positions on periodisation.
- Adapt every system to fit yourself rather than following a programme as gospel — the core mindset of good self-coaching.
- He experimented seriously with nutrition, including low-carb and fasted approaches, but tuned them to his own body — n=1, not dogma.
- He also knew the limits: he scaled fasting back around races because it was too big a shock to the body before competition.
- His breakaway wins were built on timing and reading the race, not just raw watts — intelligence as a performance edge.
- Self-coaching works when experimentation is paired with honesty about what is and isn't helping.
IN CUMMINGS’S OWN WORDS
Verbatim from Steve Cummings’s appearances on the podcast.
“The idea basically you know like the caveman and all I what I used to sort of run on was just meeting berries but obviously the caveman didn't ride a bike so we just had to put a few carbs in there to tweak that system and I don't know it worked very well for me.”
“I tried to limit it actually because at one point I was doing it a lot. I basically wouldn't be breakfast ever. But we limited it because ultimately when you get to a race and you do have to have breakfast, our stance is like sort of, it was too much of a shot to the body so we had to change it around a bit.”
“I did most things on feeling and then used the numbers as sort of confirmation really.”
HEAR IT ON THE PODCAST
Episodes where Steve Cummings covers periodisation and related ground.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
What does Steve Cummings say about periodisation?
Steve Cummings, olympic medallist, two-time tour de france stage winner, has appeared on the Roadman Cycling Podcast. Here's where Cummings lands on periodisation. The positions below are drawn from those conversations, quoted directly.
What is Cummings's main point on periodisation?
Adapt every system to fit yourself rather than following a programme as gospel — the core mindset of good self-coaching.
Which Roadman Cycling Podcast episodes cover Steve Cummings on periodisation?
Cummings discusses periodisation in this episode: "Steve Cummings - The Peleton's Last Maverick".
EXPLORE THE TOPIC
Training Plans— The Complete Guide →OTHER EXPERTS ON PERIODISATION