Just read that he’s not been selected for TOB and realised that I’ve heard much about him all year. Where’s he been / what’s happened to him?

Illness and injury. Hasn’t got on with heavy training load and mountain domestique duties so team/rider are re-evaluating training schedule for next year.
2 year deal so ‘safe’ for another year the I guess Sky will off load him if things don’t click 🙁

Interview here http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/15326/Jonathan-Tiernan-Locke-feature-Returning-to-an-old-approach-in-order-to-get-back-to-top-form.aspx

Thanks. After his performance at last years worlds I expected to see more of him.

I think they signed him as a grand tour domestique and the training has taken its toll on him. Id expect to see him in the classics next your and back in the pro continental ranks the following year.

Never really got a chance to lead in the Ardennes classics that would have suited him best. Maybe a week long stage race with shorter climbs would suit….like the Tour of Britain 😕
Can’t see Sky giving him a leaders role ANYWHERE so maybe a case of wrong rider on wrong team 🙁

Seems the Sky machine is fallible after all.

That’s the problem with being a small fish in a big pond. The wages are good but unless you’re a real superstar, you’ll be being employed to domestique and help out the leaders.

JTL was never gonna be signed from Pro Conti level to lead Sky. he was employed as a bloody good climber than could help out their other bloody good climbers. The training loads from Pro Conti to World Tour are massively different. Hope he has a turn around year otherwise I can see him going back to Pro Conti the year after.

That’s the problem with being a small fish in a big pond. The wages are good but unless you’re a real superstar, you’ll be being employed to domestique and help out the leaders.

JTL was never gonna be signed from Pro Conti level to lead Sky. he was employed as a bloody good climber than could help out their other bloody good climbers. The training loads from Pro Conti to World Tour are massively different. Hope he has a turn around year otherwise I can see him going back to Pro Conti the year after.

Really nice bloke, I won a bike radar/ skoda competition and went on a ride with him and one of the other Rapha/Condor/Sharp guys round cheddar gorge.

spent a good half hour chatting, he did a lot of MTB in the past. went to uni and I think had glandular fever or similar at some point. anyway has come into road racing pretty late and still kicked ass. Was pretty into his motorbikes and sounded like he still enjoyed a drink with his mates 🙂

anyway, wish he had managed the jump this year and hope he comes into his own next year. I would love him to make the tour team although that might be a dream for him.

Uhhhhh Ohhhhhhh

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/24321502

Too eager to get back in?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tiernan-locke-called-to-clarify-irregular-blood-values

benefit of the doubt, if your ill, i am guessing your blood mix might be a bit all over the place, more white cells, less red cells, if your not able to train then more changes. Then you do some training and it goes back up…

benefit of the doubt let them do the inquiry and come up with some answers.

The suspicious thing was that it was leaked to the press the day after the former head of BC takes over the UCI on a transparency quest. Sour grapes from Pat?

Not to do with recent illness, apparently predates his Sky contract.

The suspicious thing was that it was leaked to the press the day after the former head of BC takes over the UCI on a transparency quest. Sour grapes from Pat?

Or just the promised transparency.

in the links above cookson is quoted as saying he’s disappointed that this has come out while it’s still being investigated, there’s a difference between suspicision and proof

Jeez how about innocent until proven guilty…..

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/opinion-why-i-think-jon-tiernan-locke-is-clean?

Jeez how about innocent until proven guilty.

just playing Devils Advocate, but would we have so many cries of innocent if he’d been say, Spanish, or Italian? If the headlines were for Cobo (obscurity-2011 Vuelta win-obscurity) would we be so indignant?

I don’t think you’d see posts on here if it wasn’t a British rider. Really like that cycling news piece – hoping it’s something innocuous, and there’s a big old investigation into how it got leaked…

That’s a bit of a non-story, so he’s a bit of a masochistic hard man, so’s Tayler Hammilton who ground his teath away rather than quit with broken bones, or Armstrong still riding bikes with a testicular cancer the size of a grapefruit (apparently).

just playing Devils Advocate, but would we have so many cries of innocent if he’d been say, Spanish, or Italian? If the headlines were for Cobo (obscurity-2011 Vuelta win-obscurity) would we be so indignant?

Probably not, but then history suggests we’d have every right to be suspicious.

Spanish, or Italian? If the headlines were for Cobo (obscurity-2011 Vuelta win-obscurity) would we be so indignant?

Has Cobo a well documented illness?

It is a strange story get out seeing as Wiggins was high on the UCI suspect list for a long time (might still be) yet no attention was drawn to it in the media. None of these things necessarily mean anything but it is interesting more has been made of the JTL blood values in the media… some smoke before the fire?

JTL’s agent is Pat McQuaid’s son. Story broke the day McQuaid got dethroned from UCI. Nice mess for Brian Cookson to sort on his first day with feet under the UCI desk. Where did that story leak from then? Sour grapes?

Intriguing.

From Cycling news:-
Andrew McQuaid, son of former UCI President Pat McQuaid, and Tiernan-Locke’s agent, told Cyclingnews that his rider was concentrating on his response for the UCI.

“We are currently preparing the answers to the questions raised by the UCI, and we are extremely confident once we present our answers the matter will be closed. As this should be a confidential process we are not prepared to comment any further at this time,” McQuaid told Cyclingnews.

Has Cobo a well documented illness?

And Armstrong (found guilty) and Froome (so far innocent) both had well documented illnesses, so apart from leaping on and accepting someone’s potential defence (which they themselves havent even proposed yet) I’m not sure youre making any point.

You do understand “Devils Advocate”? I’m not saying I think JTL is guilty, just that there is a bias to people defending riders of their home nation as opposed to “dirty” foreign riders. Velonation had plenty to speculate about Froome, but I missed their raised eyebrows over homeboy Horner.

I tend to wait until after the evidence before convicting people. As i understand it JTL was refused access to the UCI passport scheme last year, but they have compared what numbers they have from last year to this year. As most of this year has been written off i wouldn’t be surprised to find some discrepancies!

Seems odd when you know who his manager is and what his nationality is….

I find it strange why so called “cycling fans” are so ready to jump the gun at first op. to discredit their sporting heros – its something you leave to the media.
The whole thing should have kept the rider anonymous until the panel’s decision.
Not handled well by the UCI.
Not handled well by Sky either with their attitude of “Sorry. Before our time”.

Sky seem to be pretty supportive over it to me but it’s obvious they’re going to point out it was before they had a contract with him, the team/brand is far more important than any rider.

As for the leak – so much testing stuff gets leaked I’d guess it was just someone in the know that likes leaking stuff rather than a conspiracy involving Pat etc.

Velonation had plenty to speculate about Froome, but I missed their raised eyebrows over homeboy Horner.

Very true. Unfortunately a lot of the US cycling publications can’t be trusted to be balanced. So many of them published mea culpa articles after Armstrong was busted that it wasn’t funny. One of them even explained how they “were forced” by Armstrong to boot either Walsh (or maybe Kimmage) out of their car in the TdF otherwise they’d lose access to the team. Not one acknowledged that they were part of the omerta, rather they pretended they’d been gagged and that “nobody” knew any better.

The French press are, these days, pretty hard on anyone suspected of doping, be they French or otherwise. I quite like this as an approach.

Not handled well by Sky either with their attitude of “Sorry. Before our time”.

What would you have them do? They can stick up for his blood values being natural this year but can’t say what happened when he was riding for Endura. Endura, on the other hand, have said “Oh well, Sky and Garmin both had him tested, talk to them”

I am more interested in where this late night bar in Bristol is. You could never find a drink after 2am there.