Sky's JTL may be in hot water

dragratchet

excerpt from the secret pro diary over on cycling tips

One case that the biological passport did get right was Jonathan Tiernan-Locke. When he popped back into the scene I just took one look at the way he was riding and I knew 100% that he was loaded up to the eyeballs. He had basically been off the bike for five years and had a reputation for bouncing off the walls of the nightclubs during that time.

Then he comes back on a sh*thouse team and is riding off the front against the best riders in the world, and putting minutes into them.

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2014/08/the-secret-pro-transfer-season/

Junior

Many current pro's have a reputation for bouncing off night club walls.

Inquitus

Junior wrote: »

Many current pro's have a reputation for bouncing off night club walls.

Does EPO improve your bouncing?

Junior

Inquitus wrote: »

Does EPO improve your bouncing?

It's a study I'd like to see the results of, but what I said there remains true, there's a lot of binge drinking and excessive alcohol intake among Pro Cyclists. Is this indicative of anything other than they like to drink, no. That's all.

ZiabR

RobFowl wrote: »

I had some doubts about this verdict but here is the UKADA report.

http://t.co/HiKAtRkJLY

I have absolutely no doubt at all now that he is guilty.......

(as well as being a complete f*cking idiot)

What an idiot...

dragratchet

Junior wrote: »

It's a study I'd like to see the results of, but what I said there remains true, there's a lot of binge drinking and excessive alcohol intake among Pro Cyclists. Is this indicative of anything other than they like to drink, no. That's all.

the reason i mainly put in that quote was that the author described how this lad wasnt exactly putting his nose to the grindstone and yet was blowing away top riders all of a sudden

smurphy29

I'm not one to use these sort of situations to leverage up pre-empted Sky-hate, but they don't really look very good here. Reading the Secret Pro's diary, I get the impression it was pretty much known in the peloton that Tiernan Locke was 'juiced up to the eyeballs'. How can Sky have been so careless / foolish / gullible / whatever that they were willing to take a risk on a rider whose results were widely regarded as suspicious?

Diarmuid

He claims he went on a massive bender on the night of September 20 (two bottles of wine, tons of spirits + more wine). Two days later he raced the World Champs, finishing 19th. Right.

D3PO

RobFowl wrote: »

I had some doubts about this verdict but here is the UKADA report.

http://t.co/HiKAtRkJLY

I dunno. Im gonna go get hammered this weekened, not get sick or drink any water then go show you all up on a bike two days later.

Fool proof winning formula

ashleey

"Under Article 326.1 (a) the rider must be fined 70% of his gross income during 2012. That fine is assessed at £15,400."

Unless you are at the top, the pay is pretty poor and goes some way to explaining the temptation to dope to get a contract. If you are dumb obviously.

godtabh

RobFowl wrote: »

I had some doubts about this verdict but here is the UKADA report.

http://t.co/HiKAtRkJLY

I have absolutely no doubt at all now that he is guilty.......

(as well as being a complete f*cking idiot)

Why wasnt his samples tested for EPO?

ZiabR

godtabh wrote: »

Why wasnt his samples tested for EPO?

Was thinking that when I read it alright. Would it not be one of the first things tested for?

godtabh

logik wrote: »

Was thinking that when I read it alright. Would it not be one of the first things tested for?

Would be there the first thing I tested for.


Even still surely everything on the band listed is tested?

Beasty

godtabh wrote: »

Even still surely everything on the band listed is tested?

I'm not sure - testing is not cheap and perhaps they sometimes vary the testing procedures to try and keep a lid on the costs (I am aware of one Masters event was due to take place in a week or two's time that has had to be cancelled as the potential cost of the drugs testing amounted to several times the amount the organiser could have taken from entry fees)

Chips Lovell

Some googling suggests that (in Australia at least) EPO screening adds to the cost of the test.

godtabh

Beasty wrote: »

I'm not sure - testing is not cheap and perhaps they sometimes vary the testing procedures to try and keep a lid on the costs (I am aware of one Masters event was due to take place in a week or two's time that has had to be cancelled as the potential cost of the drugs testing amounted to several times the amount the organiser could have taken from entry fees)

For the Tour of Britain would that have been an issue?

velo.2010

Brian Smith comes across as a very silly man either knowing or not knowing what was going on - when he should really know!

Funny to think I saw JTL alone, plodding his way up a climb in Majorca last year after a poor start to the season and obviously off the juice at that stage. You can see that in this article and his excuses for not performing in 2013.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cycling/23849848

RobFowl

logik wrote: »

Was thinking that when I read it alright. Would it not be one of the first things tested for?

They don't routinely test for EPO as it costs about 120-150 a test more (the race organiser pays btw).
It's only tested for EPO if the UCI request that it is.

Chips Lovell

Tour of Britain in 2012 was still only a 2.1 ranked race. I doubt they had a massive budget.

RobFowl

Oscar Gateaux wrote: »

Tour of Britain in 2012 was still only a 2.1 ranked race. I doubt they had a massive budget.

Bear in mind 4-5 tests a day over a 7 days race would mean testing for EPO added 5k to the budget (quite substantial for a lot of races ).