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Tiernan-Locke ban.pngTeam Sky's Jonathan Tiernan Locke gets 2 year ban for biological passport irregularities
Jonathan Tiernan-Locke who signed for Team Sky after winning the 2012 Tour of Britian, has been banned from the sport until the 31st of December 2015 by the UCI for irregularities in his biological passport.
The UCI made no announcement of the sanctions taken against Tiernan-Locke as the organisation continue to follow the protocal they announced earlier this week of merely adding names to the list of banned riders on the UCI website, although they later followed that up with a statement.
Tiernan-Locke's name was added to that list earlier today at some point - we presume - and Team Sky released a statement not long after confirming Tiernan-Locke's immediate sacking.
Sir Dave Brailsford, Team Principal of Team Sky, said: “Jonathan’s contract has been terminated today.
“Whilst there have been no doubts about his time with us, his doping violation - from readings taken before he joined this team - means there’s no place for him in Team Sky.
“We’ve a well-known stance on anti-doping and our action is the inevitable outcome of a violation.
“This is a team that trains, races and wins clean.”
Tiernan-Locke's name on the Team Sky bus at the Yorkshire Grand Depart
In their statement, Sky clarify that Tiernan-Locke’s anomoulous biological passport readings were taken in September 2012, both before he signed a two-year contract with the British team and three months before his first race in their colours.
The statement then goes on to distance the team from any wrong doing, saying that both "quantitative and qualitative" factors were properly considered, as the rider had no biological passport at that time for them to refer to.
Finally, the team affirm that they took appropriate action as soon as they were made aware of the situation. The statement can be read in full below.
"The anomalous readings in Tiernan-Locke’s Biological Passport were taken in September 2012, shortly before he signed his two-year contract with Team Sky and three months before his first race with the team.
"Prior to his signing, a number of factors – quantitative and qualitative – were properly considered. However, he had no Biological Passport to review until the spring of 2013, once the anti-doping authorities had collected the required number of readings.
"Team Sky was first aware of an issue in September 2013. Senior management immediately looked into the case and also reviewed recruitment processes. These will continue to be assessed, on an ongoing basis, with the support of the team’s Compliance Officer, appointed in the autumn.
"Jonathan Tiernan-Locke has not raced for the team since September 2013 and has not taken part in any team activities - including races, training camps and public appearances - since he was formally notified of a UCI anti-doping violation on 16 December 2013."
Subsequently, world cycling's governing body, the UCI, released a statement which read:
"The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) confirms receipt of the United Kingdom National Anti-Doping Panel’s decision on the Jonathan Tiernan-Locke case. A 2-year ban was imposed on the rider as a result of his anti-doping rule violation based on his Athlete Biological Passport. He is declared ineligible until December 31, 2015 and disqualified from the 2012 Tour of Britain and the 2012 UCI Road World Championships, competitions during which abnormalities were clearly identified. The UCI recognises the work of UKAD in providing the rider with a fair and independent hearing. At this stage, with the relevant appeal windows open, the UCI will not make any further comment on the case."
road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.
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53 comments
Bye Bye Cheat...
Are the Tour of Britain going to strip JTL of his title now then after this?
Possibly did then...
This isn't about Sky really. This is about JTL. It was Skys' own internal testing that caught JTL, if I remember right.
How can he get busted for biological passport irregularities from a period of time during which he didn't have one. Or have I just completely mis-read that, twice.....?
I think the common view is when they he came onto a bio passport they comapred his readings with samples taken in 2012 etc.
The bio-passport presumably caught blood-doping, but there were alarm bells ringing much earlier in JTL's career. E.g. his immune system problems and being floored for a year by otherwise fairly harmless viruses.
See my comments on:
http://road.cc/content/news/73756-jonathan-tiernan-locke-video-interview...
I was accused of mud-slinging then...
Reading the comments now I would accuse you of having too much free time!
Sometimes it's just not worth the bother talking about Sky.
Very quiet from some people. Obviously Sky can do no wrong....
It sounds like Sky are hanging him out to dry in the same way as teams have done to countless riders ever since Festina. The fact that nothing has changed in that respect makes me wonder what else hasn't changed either.
Do you expect them to stand by a rider accused of doping?
With there very vocal stance on a clean team that would be PR suicide for them.
He was still doping while riding for British Cycling then, which of course back then was run by Brailsford too.
No way, Brailsford has said before that he can't cheat on a Monday and not on a Tuesday, LOL.
Very, very disappointing news.
As far as I'm concerned the best thing he can do is admit it then go and get himself a proper job.
I wonder what is being said by and about other members of the Endura team of 2012... tainted by association or is there more to it? What a mess.
Jesus .was'nt he good before he signed for Sky .TOB , he flew up those hills ,Maybee that's a tell tall signs .ahem LA .LOL !!!!!!
Absolutely. Let's deal with the real story here - flags... Zzzzzz
Why not? Seems not too many people are surprised about JTL. His performances in 2013 blew no one away and got the questions started, no one was surprised.
I think that is a slight twisting of events to say his performances got him popped. The reality is that the process for him proceeding from the lower ranks to Pro-peloton saw him 'discovered'.
Can anyone remind me about the spat between his Endura team and Sky? I seem to remember that Endura blamed Sky and vice versa, Sky trying to get JTL tested for the blood passport before he needed to. And then he spent a long time training with them before finally making the contractual move. The finer points being that Endura found the period with Sky to be at fault and when his bloods got tested. Either way it doesn't show Sky in a great light because it appears that they were trying to circumvent the process to get JTL through the blood passport process without him showing anomalies.....
I stand to be corrected. By the way I don't think Sky are doing anything different to anyone else, so this isn't a 'Sky thing', just a malaise of professional sport (it's not just about cycling you know).
After JTL won the Tour of the Med & Tour du Haut Var in early 2012, questions were asked about his performances, so Endura offered to pay for him to be included in the bio-passport programme, but the UCI refused.
The blood tests used in the case must have come from in-competition tests at the Tour of Britain, which were probably then compared to those from when he joined the bio-passport after signing for Sky.
Yeah, looks like the riders chose what goes on, as Luke Rowe has the Welsh flag and not the Union Jack. Plus, Wiggins is Wiggo with the O being mod-ified
I doubt we've heard the last of this one. He's got nothing to lose by appealing it.
If I read that tour bus correctly, Swifty, Wiggo and Tiernan Locke are British, while Stannard is English. Correct?
Whilst Rowe is Welsh...
I presume they let the rider choose - if I remember rightly Nieve has the Basque flag by his name on there, whereas Lopez and Zandio have the Spanish flag.
This was mentioned in the 'Buses of the Tour' article. The riders choose their flags.
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