Steve Cummings will not be riding this year's Tour De France which starts on Saturday.
The Wirral born rider, put in some sterling work for BMC to assist Cadel Evans and Philippe Gilbert in last year's race, finishing 95th but the winner of Stage 13 in the Vuelta a Espana and Stage 5 of the 2012 Tour Of Beijing, has been left of the nine man BMC team which has been selected for the 100th edition of the world's greatest cycling race.
The BMC team, as expected, has been built around Cadel Evans and six of the team who have been named played a part in helping the Australian win the 2011 race.
Alongside Evans, will be World Road Race Champion Philippe Gilbert and 2012 Tour de France's best young rider and Amgen Tour of California winner Tejay van Garderen, in addition to Brent Bookwalter, Marcus Burghardt, Amaël Moinard, Steve Morabito, Manuel Quinziato and Michael Schär with Thor Hushovd named amongst the three reserves.
BMC Racing Team President/General Manager Jim Ochowicz said about his team's selection to the BMC team website: "Selection starts the day after the previous Tour in regards to evaluation, and we take into final consideration the course design and performance and health issues leading up to this point,
"The evaluation of that information was used to select nine athletes and three alternates, who equally earn a right to take the start. But for any one of several of the selection criteria, they (the alternates) just didn't get there."