http://road.cc/content/news/95179-team-skys-jonathan-tiernan-locke-asked-explain-blood-values-uci

I’m not particularly shocked by this, I think people saw it coming. Rider comes from nowhere on a team not subject to the passport, wins big race, passport is started on him, goes to big team, performance suddenly drops.

I hope it’s not him doing something dodgy but this is one of those cases where you just can’t help feeling that something wasn’t right.

I’m surprised to find out that he’s 28. Thought he was the next big young thing.

I’m surprised that you didn’t notice there is already a thread about him.

I searched for locke but didn’t get a link newer than 2 weeks. Oh well.

It could be that the abnormalities in his bio passport are due to the mononucleosis he had.

On the other, and more likely, hand…

If and it is if they do come back with something that shouldn’t have been there it will be interesting to see how Sky deal with it.

As far as I know Sky only sign people who are and have been clean so JTL is surely out ?

Could be all manner of reasons why JTL has struggled meeting the expectations Sky had of him but on the other hand…..

If (and it is a big if) he has been doping may I politely suggest he changes his drugs of choice as after the season he has had they clearly don’t work. He’s not exactly been Lance Armstrong this season has he?!

Lunge – I think the implication is that he may have been doping pre-Sky, but since signing for them and being exposed to a proper testing regime he’s stopped, hence drop off in performance (and all the talk about how Sky’s training methods didn’t suit him).

This is, of course, all speculation and there may well be an innocent explanation. He hasn’t yet actually been charged with doping, just asked to explain some irregularities.

Sapphire & steel are good with dealing with irregularities !

Jeez innocent until proven guilty hey…

not in cycling. See Lance Armstrong…

Well I still believe in innocent until proven guilty in all walks of life….lance who ??

This is a non-story as it stands. Riders are often asked to clarify their blood passports, as there are a huge number of factors that can affect the blood values.

It helps nobody to assume the worst in these cases, or indeed to imply some kind of wrongdoing based on the fact that he’s had a bad season.

Here’s some background to the story that I thought people would be interested in:

http://inrng.com/2013/10/uci-bio-passport-tiernan-locke/

Turns out the findings are possibly more suspicious than I thought, but the process still isn’t transparent enough to really make a judgement just yet – I guess this is why these findings are usually kept confidential until a prosecution is made.

I like how one of the stats on that passport is titled ‘OFFS’, just needs exclamation marks…

What is happening with his case now? Seems to have gone quiet.

He’s still out training in sky kit…

That’s the UCI now opening disciplinary proceedings…

Anyone else not even vaguely surprised? Expect a sacking from Sky and a slow withdraw to the Pro-Continental ranks.

http://road.cc/content/news/103011-bio-passport-charges-team-skys-jonathan-tiernan-locke

Oo eck, aye. 🙁

BBC breaking news

Really hoping there’s an explanation…

guilty as charged sir! What a dick head,world tour pro life down the toilet…..an merry Xmas to you JTL

Hoping it’s just part of the process that needs to run its course, and that all will be explained… but it doesn’t look good.

Bad news but if he has been cheating at least it shows that the tests work and that’s really the critical thing IMO.

Team sky sent out a tweet at 10am, JTL will no longer,train or ride with team sky!

Whether he did something bad or not he’s got to be sat at home now thinking ‘shit, shit, shit’ and staring into a future that’s not the one he thought it was going to be. Very sad, whatever the outcome.

Surprised? No
He had values out side of the norm /expected which is what was leaked earlier. Not being asked to explain would have been strange.

This is about his values prior to his (officially) joining team sky. Very odd given the hot water they were extracting themselves from at the time that they didn’t make sure they had all the relevant data and make their own assessment at the time of him taking up their contract.

Well – I think they did. He’d even been training with them, IIRC?

He had; he was effectively a pseudo a sky rider at the 2012 TdB getting a helping hand from them. Which is why I’m surprised they weren’t all over his numbers and smelling a rat.

He had; he was effectively a pseudo a sky rider at the 2012 TdB getting a helping hand from them. Which is why I’m surprised they weren’t all over his numbers and smelling a rat.

Perhaps they thought they could get away with it?

Get away with signing him and his past being forgotten/ignored yes – but once on a pro tour team he was never going to get away with the same regime. Which means his performances were always going to drop off (assuming he was juiced previously).

A flag went up for me with his performances in early 2012.
It was all just a bit too easy for him.
He just rode seasoned climbers off his wheel despite the fact he wasn’t known as a climber in the Tour Méditerranéen.
Then repeated the feat in Haut Var.

This is all when he was on a team not part of the bio passport. Not sure at what stage of Team Sky’s interest in him he would have had to have started the passport.

Not that I thought ‘definitely’, but I’ve been very wary since.

Which is why I’m surprised they weren’t all over his numbers and smelling a rat.

Maybe they WERE all over them, and nothing showed? The way the whole thing has broken and progressed suggests that, whatever the anomoly is, it’s a long way from being a clear breach of ze rules.

Maybe they WERE all over them, and nothing showed? The way the whole thing has broken and progressed suggests that, whatever the anomoly is, it’s a long way from being a clear breach of ze rules.

Well that’s exactly it, they were all over it but a biological passport violation isn’t the result of a single test, it’s about establishing a baseline each year so that anomalies can be spotted. It’s not like he was busted for something you can get in a single blood/urine test.

The team you have to ask questions of is Endura Racing but of course they’ve merged with Netapp and the remainder closed so I’d imagine some people are a bit happier having it be “Team Sky’s JTL”.