Steve Cummings returns from broken collarbone with local time trial win

Steve Cummings returned to racing, after breaking his collarbone in a crash during the Tour of the Basque Country, with a win in a Manchester & District time trial.

The Dimension Data rider won by over two minutes, racing for Birkenhead North End CC, posting a time of 50-21 on the 25-mile circuit.

In second place was Joseph Dobson, coming off a win in the Birkenhead North End 22 last month, riding for Manchester Bicycle Club, who finished 2-35 down on Cummings.

In the women's event, Deborah Moss (Team Merlin) took a convincing win, finishing in 1-40, five minutes faster than the next quickest time.

Cummings has raced local time trials on his road to recovery before. After fracturing two vertebrae at the 2017 Tour de France he went on to win the Birkenhead North End CC five mile club time trial by 30 seconds a month later.

The 38-year-old had abandoned on stage three of the Tour of the Basque Country 2019, in a crash that also claimed Jonathan Castroviejo (Team Ineos), who fractured his vertebra, wist, collarbone and a rib.

This latest crash came on the back of a self-described "terrible" 2018 season for the Brit, with a change to his usual programme leading to breathing issues that needed to be resolved by a specialist.

Cummings has previously won two stages of the Tour de France, in 2015 and 2016, as well as a stage of the Vuelta a Espana in 2012.

In 2017 he also won both the British national road race and time trial championships, denying Alex Dowsett a sixth victory after Cummings took the win on the Isle of Man by just eight seconds on the 44.4km course.