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Jonathan Tiernan-Locke banned for two years and sacked by Sky Jonathan Tiernan-Locke banned for two years and sacked by Sky
(35 minutes later)
Britain’s Jonathan Tiernan-Locke has received a two-year ban for a violation of the UCI’s biological passport, the first time any British rider has been sanctioned in this way. After the loss of their leader and defending Tour de France champion Chris Froome due to a crash, Team Sky suffered a second body-blow in eight days when it was confirmed that Britain’s Jonathan Tiernan-Locke has received a two-year ban for a violation of the UCI’s biological passport, the first time any British athlete has been sanctioned in this way. Tiernan-Locke’s contract was terminated on Thursday by Sky, a statement on the team’s website said. He is the first athlete in the team to be sanctioned for an anti-doping offence.
Tiernan-Locke’s contract was terminated immediately by Team Sky. He is the first rider in the team to be sanctioned for an anti-doping offence. The Devon cyclist was hired by Sky at the end of a stellar 2012 after winning the Tour of Britain in dominant style for the Endura team, on top of victories in the Tour du Haut Var, Tour of the Mediterranean and Tour d’Alsace. He has now been stripped of his victory in the Tour of Britain and his 19th place in the 2012 world road race championship which he rode for Great Britain.
The Devon cyclist was hired by Team Sky at the end of 2012 after winning the Tour of Britain in dominant style, on top of victories in the Tour du Haut Var, Tour Méditerranéen and Tour d’Alsace. He has now been stripped of his victory in the Tour of Britain and 19th place in the 2012 world road race championships which he rode for Great Britain. Questioned after the Tour stage finish in Saint-Étienne, Sir Dave Brailsford said that the team had changed its vetting procedures since the Tiernan-Locke case was revealed by the UCI in September 2013. “What we have done is stop and look at our governance, we’ve got a compliance officer, we scrutinise all the available data now [and] all the info we have got and our monitoring is second to none I would say.”
Sir Dave Brailsford, the head of Team Sky, said: “Jonathan’s contract has been terminated today. While 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. Team Sky added in a statement yesterday that their senior management had reviewed their recruitment processes, which were called into question after the Tiernan-Locke case came to light. They have also appointed a compliance officer, a longstanding British Cycling employee and Brailsford’s one-time PA Alison Johnson, to keep tabs on such issues.
“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.” The team’s stance is that Tiernan-Locke’s anti-doping offence dates back to the time before he joined, and that the difficulty for them was that they had no available data to go on when they hired him because his first test within the biological passport system took place in September 2012, and there were no further readings to establish a pattern until spring 2013.
The statement on Team Sky’s website read: “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. Tiernan-Locke was not formally within the biological passport system for 2012 as his previous team, Endura – like all teams in the UCI’s third-tier, Continental – were not subject to it. However, having achieved such spectacular results in 2012 he is likely to have been tested more often, and some of this data may have been compared with his 2013 readings.
“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.” The statement on Team Sky’s statement read: “Prior to his signing, a number of factors – quantitative and qualitative – were properly considered.”
Tiernan-Locke barely raced for Sky in 2013, owing to illness, completing 39 race days, and news first broke that he had been notified of anomalies in his passport readings September that year. The UCI opened proceedings against him in December and a further delay in the case came this spring when his lawyers requested more time to make his defence. Brailsford added: “It does raise issues about recruiting riders without a passport history [but] you’ve got to in this sport.”
Team Sky’s senior management has “reviewed” their recruitment processes, which were called into question after the Tiernan-Locke case came to light. They team has also appointed a compliance officer, a longstanding British Cycling employee and Brailsford’s one-time PA, Alison Johnson, to keep tabs on such issues. Tiernan-Locke had been on Team Sky’s radar for several months before they hired him, as he attended two training camps in Tenerife, at least one with Bradley Wiggins, in the spring of that year. The team have as yet been unable to supply the Guardian details of precisely what scrutiny procedures were in place at the time for screening potential new signings but he is understood to have had a medical at the time of his signing for the team.
The Tiernan-Locke case comes after the UCI president, Brian Cookson, was asked about the governing body’s procedures for announcing anti-doping sanctions after a biological passport case against the Russian Denis Menchov was revealed through an update to the list on its website. Tiernan-Locke barely raced for Sky in 2013, due to illness, completing just 39 race days. He had been afflicted similarly in the past, being forced to cut his career by two years after attacks of glandular fever and chronic fatigue, and it was suggested that this might be an explanation when news first broke that he had been notified of anomalies in his passport readings in September that year.
Tiernan-Locke’s sanction was put through in the same way, in spite of Cookson’s assertion that “in a case that is of public interest, I think we have to announce it in a proactive way rather than in a reactive way”. The UCI opened proceedings against him in December 2013, and a further delay in the case came when his lawyers requested further time to make his defence. He had been provisionally suspended by the team in September 2013, and, the team said, had taken no part in team activities since then.The Tiernan-Locke case comes after the UCI president Brian Cookson was asked about the governing body’s procedures for announcing anti-doping sanctions after a biological passport case against the Russian Denis Menchov was revealed through an update to the list on its website. Tiernan-Locke’s sanction was put through in the same way, in spite of Cookson’s assertion that ‚ÄúIf there is a case that is of public interest, I think we have to announce it in a proactive way rather than in a reactive way.”