Sean Yates autobiography to be published this autumn

Transworld will this autumn publish the autobiography of Sean Yates, who stepped down as sports director at Team Sky last October citing health and family reasons, reports The Bookseller.

The trade journal reports that the rights were acquired from literary agency Jenny Brown Associates, whose author list includes round-the-world cyclist Mark Beaumont, TV presenter Ned Boulting and cycling journalist and writer Richard Moore, whose books include Sky's the Limit: British Cycling's Quest to Conquer the Tour de France, which focused on Team Sky's debut season of 2010.

Yates is one of just five Britons to have worn the Tour de France leader's jersey - the others being Tom Simpson, Chris Boardman, David Millar and of course Bradley Wiggins, who won last year's race with Yates supporting him from the team car.

During his riding career, Yates rode the Tour de France a dozen times, winning an individual time trial stage in 1988. He wore the maillot jaune for a day in 1994, and also counts stage victories in races including the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and Paris-Nice among his palmares.

While Team Sky insisted when it announced Yates's departure that it had nothing to do with its requirement for all riders and staff to reaffirm their commitment to its zero tolerance policy on doping, the timing was unfortunate to say the least.

It came after the recently retired Michael Barry had been confirmed as one of the witnesses in the Armstrong case and coinciding with the departure of race coach Bobby Julich and sports director Steven de Jongh after they confessed to having doped during their racing careers.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency included in an Appendix to its Reasoned Decision in the Armstrong investigation a photo of Yates, in Team Sky clothing, with the Cote d'Azur bike shop owner identified as the 'Motoman' who delivered drugs to Armstrong.

Yates himself was not named in USADA's dossier, but the association did put pressure on him, with some pointing to reports of a failed test during the first stage of the 1989 Torhout-Werchter Classic - the matter was dropped and Yates was not sanctioned due to a mix-up in the labelling of the sample - as further grounds for suspicion.

Added to that was the fact that Yates had ridden alongside Armstrong at Motorola, was DS to the Discovery Channel team in 2005, and worked with the American, and team manager Johan Bruyneel, again at Astana in 2009.

After USADA published its Reasoned Decision, Yates insisted to BBC Radio 5 Live that he had not seen anything suspicious during his time working with Armstrong.