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New ban for Jonathan Tiernan-Locke - for drink-driving

Ex-Team Sky rider currently serving drugs ban was two and a half times over the limit

Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, who claimed that a drinking binge was to blame for the anomalies in his biological passport data that led to him being banned from cycling for two years, has now been banned from driving.

Police found the former Team Sky rider to be two and a half times over the legal limit for alcohol when they stopped him in Plymouth city centre early in the morning of 24 April, reports the Plymouth Herald.

He had been spotted at 3.45am on CCTV leaving a bar and getting into his Range Rover to drive to another bar a short distance away.

Police arrested him while he was on foot and he was taken to Charles Cross Police Station, where according to Gareth Warden, prosecuting, there was “an issue” with the 30-year-old undergoing a breath test.

Instead, officers gave him the opportunity to give a sample of blood. He was discovered to have 204 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, more than two and a half times the limit of 80 milligrams.

Tiernan-Locke pleaded guilty and magistrates banned him from driving for 17 months, although that suspension may be reduced by a quarter should h attend a drink drive rehabilitation course he has been offered.

He was also fined £140 and told to pay £85 court costs, a £20 victim surcharge and a criminal courts charge of £150.

In July last year, Tiernan-Locke was handed a partially backdated two-year ban for irregularities in his athlete biological passport dating back to September 2012, when he rode for Endura Racing.

The blood values at issue related to the week between the Devon rider winning the 2012 Tour of Britain and taking part in the UCI World Championship as Great Britain’s protected rider.

He claimed the readings were due to dehydration after drinking 33 units of alcohol during a night out with his girlfriend in Bristol to celebrate his move to Team Sky.

UK Anti-Doping's disciplinary panel rejected thatr argument and found that the data were due to his having used a prohiited substance or method.

Tiernan-Locke continues to insist he is innocent, and last month said the UCI’s biological passport programme wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny in a “proper court.”

He has said that he plans to return to racing once his ban ends at the end of the year, most likely with a domestic team, and claimed in April that he had received approaches from teams looking to sign him.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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31 comments

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vonhelmet | 8 years ago
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There's nothing to suggest he's an alcoholic, who I'd accept is "fighting a battle". He's someone who got drunk and decided it was still ok to drive his car. He's a selfish wanker.

And he has been out of the public eye. Since getting banned from cycling it's all gone quiet until this.

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crikey | 8 years ago
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Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

He is obviously a man with a problem, and beating him with it isn't going to help him in anyway. Nor is gloating about his demise, however well deserved.

Needs help, needs support and above all needs not to be living in the public eye while he gets sorted out. I'd rather not see another Pantani style mess, or a Ricardo Ricci style scandal, or a Thierry Claveyrolat style slide into eventual despair.

Plenty of us do stupid things.

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mattsccm | 8 years ago
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I had an element of sympathy for the drugs thing. Much adoo about nothing. This however is serious. Drink driving should be a lifetime ban and that fine needs 2 zeros on the end.

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The _Kaner | 8 years ago
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silly boy!
Maybe he was telling the truth about his 'dehydration'/haematocrit anomalies...
but driving whilst intoxicated...there is no excuse...doesn't matter how short the distance or empty the roads are...

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daddyELVIS | 8 years ago
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Driving a Range Rover - that Sky payout must have been quite generous!

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BikeBud | 8 years ago
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Sympathy, forgiveness & understanding are wonderful traits to see in my fellow human beings. However, I know plenty of people with (properly) significant problems in their lives, and none of them are stupid or selfish enough to drink-drive.

If this wasn't a pro cyclist I imagine the comments on here would be more along the lines of "lifetime ban", "hanging is too good for him" etc.

Any statements from his sister regarding this?

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rggfddne | 8 years ago
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Remember kids, pro cyclists are super serious about safety.

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Al__S | 8 years ago
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Especially age 30. He's too old for a ProTeam or even ProContinental team to consider now.

He needs help, and he needs a new career direction

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mtm_01 | 8 years ago
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Think that's the final nail in the coffin of his career. Hard enough to come back from a drugs ban, let alone a drink drinking one as well.

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Simmo72 replied to mtm_01 | 8 years ago
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A certain Belgium came back after a couple of incidents with cocaine, this has no impact on his career except he'll need a lift to some races once his racing ban is lifted.

Does the man need help or is he just another idiot who thinks drink driving is ok? My experience of drink drivers is the latter.

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P3t3 | 8 years ago
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Poor lad sounds like he needs some help. I can imagine I'd be a right mess if I realised I was squandering some of my potential best years as a professional after having been publicly branded a cheat.

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shay cycles replied to P3t3 | 8 years ago
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P3t3 wrote:

Poor lad sounds like he needs some help. I can imagine I'd be a right mess if I realised I was squandering some of my potential best years as a professional after having been publicly branded a cheat.

If this particular drunk driver was not a professional cyclist I doubt he would find much sympathy on here.

He may well have problems but that can never, ever justify driving a motor vehicle when over the alcohol limit.

Anyone drinking and driving over the limit deserves serious penalties - in my view rather more serious than the one in this case.

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farrell | 8 years ago
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Can somebody figure out how much this is likely to equate to in terms of the amount of booze drank?

2 pints of lager could easily put you over the 80mg limit, so would it follow that to get to 204mg you would have had to have drank 4 or 5 pints? Or does it build up quicker than that, say, 2 pints puts you at the limit, but 3 would make you double the limit sort of thing?

I understand that with blood alcohol levels it is pretty complex and is effected by a lot of variables, I'm just curious about the basic, back of a fag packet arithmetic involved.

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nicholassmith replied to farrell | 8 years ago
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farrell wrote:

Can somebody figure out how much this is likely to equate to in terms of the amount of booze drank?

2 pints of lager could easily put you over the 80mg limit, so would it follow that to get to 204mg you would have had to have drank 4 or 5 pints? Or does it build up quicker than that, say, 2 pints puts you at the limit, but 3 would make you double the limit sort of thing?

I understand that with blood alcohol levels it is pretty complex and is effected by a lot of variables, I'm just curious about the basic, back of a fag packet arithmetic involved.

The rough rule of thumb is your liver can process one unit of alcohol per hour, obviously that's effected by your own personal physiology quite a bit. There's also no strict correlation between 1 unit and the millilitres/alcohol and milligrammes/breath.

He was caught at 3:45am so I'd imagine he'll have had anywhere between 6-10 pints depending on his metabolism and liver function, and what time he started. Given he seems to like a shandy I'd err on the side of his body not processing alcohol as effectively as someone who has a drink once in a blue moon.

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ChairRDRF replied to nicholassmith | 8 years ago
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nicholassmith wrote:
farrell wrote:

Can somebody figure out how much this is likely to equate to in terms of the amount of booze drank?

2 pints of lager could easily put you over the 80mg limit, so would it follow that to get to 204mg you would have had to have drank 4 or 5 pints? Or does it build up quicker than that, say, 2 pints puts you at the limit, but 3 would make you double the limit sort of thing?

I understand that with blood alcohol levels it is pretty complex and is effected by a lot of variables, I'm just curious about the basic, back of a fag packet arithmetic involved.

The rough rule of thumb is your liver can process one unit of alcohol per hour, obviously that's effected by your own personal physiology quite a bit. There's also no strict correlation between 1 unit and the millilitres/alcohol and milligrammes/breath.

He was caught at 3:45am so I'd imagine he'll have had anywhere between 6-10 pints depending on his metabolism and liver function, and what time he started. Given he seems to like a shandy I'd err on the side of his body not processing alcohol as effectively as someone who has a drink once in a blue moon.

It depends on size of liver (roughly related to overall body size) and gender. So a smaller than average woman may go to about twice as high a blood alcohol level as a bigger than average man who has had the same amount to drink.

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Stumps replied to farrell | 8 years ago
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farrell wrote:

Can somebody figure out how much this is likely to equate to in terms of the amount of booze drank?

2 pints of lager could easily put you over the 80mg limit, so would it follow that to get to 204mg you would have had to have drank 4 or 5 pints? Or does it build up quicker than that, say, 2 pints puts you at the limit, but 3 would make you double the limit sort of thing?

I understand that with blood alcohol levels it is pretty complex and is effected by a lot of variables, I'm just curious about the basic, back of a fag packet arithmetic involved.

Basically the age old saying was 2 1/2 pints was the limit however as beers and lagers have got stronger so that limit is no longer feasible. You should also take into account a persons physique and what they have had to eat. Looking at T-L he is quite slight in build and no doubt at 3.45am would not have had much to eat for a while so in reality he may have only had 3 or 4 pints of a decent beer.

As for the reasons for blood - well when your arrested your put on (in my force) a Camic Datamaster and have to supply 2 samples of breath with the higher one discarded. Now to go for blood you have to blow between 40 and 49 or the machine itself malfunctions and it shows an unreliable reading. In the case of T-L i assume that it was an unreliable reading.

Regardless of this though he should know better and not drink and drive so i have no sympathy with him.

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Awavey replied to Stumps | 8 years ago
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stumps wrote:

Basically the age old saying was 2 1/2 pints was the limit however as beers and lagers have got stronger so that limit is no longer feasible. You should also take into account a persons physique and what they have had to eat. Looking at T-L he is quite slight in build and no doubt at 3.45am would not have had much to eat for a while so in reality he may have only had 3 or 4 pints of a decent beer.

sorry with my brewsters hat on, I have to correct that, overall the strength of beers/lagers has dropped by nearly 0.5% to around 4% over the last few years. Stella Artois, Budweiser and Becks have all reduced from 5% to 4.8%. Strong beers dont sell well in the UK.

in anycase youve all forgotten from JTLs drug test appeal report, his favourite tipple was double measures of vodka and gin, presumably not combined,but not pints of beer.

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Edgeley | 8 years ago
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He seems to have problems. Nothing wrong with young sportspeople having the occasional binge - they are fit and can cope with it. But taking your car is just nuts. Maybe it isn't just the occasional binge.

He is either very stupid, very selfish, or very troubled. Possible a combination of the three.

Time to check into Sporting Chance, perhaps. Before his career and his health completely disappear.

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notfastenough replied to Edgeley | 8 years ago
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Edgeley wrote:

He seems to have problems. Nothing wrong with young sportspeople having the occasional binge - they are fit and can cope with it. But taking your car is just nuts. Maybe it isn't just the occasional binge.

He is either very stupid, very selfish, or very troubled. Possible a combination of the three.

Time to check into Sporting Chance, perhaps. Before his career and his health completely disappear.

Is it a step too far to wonder whether a non-doping athlete whose physiology is impacted by the abuse of alcohol could trigger a false positive in a dope test? I've no idea if the science would stack up, but I bet the AD research thus far didn't allow for this difference.

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Danger Dicko | 8 years ago
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The guys obviously got problems.
He needs help. I wonder if he's been offered the same kind of help David Millar got? Not officially from British Cycling but from those on the edge?

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nikjgibson | 8 years ago
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He'll just have to use his bike in future  1

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earth | 8 years ago
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Did they check his haematocrit levels along with the alcohol level in his blood, according to his theory it would have been through the roof.

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earth replied to earth | 8 years ago
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earth wrote:

Did they check his haematocrit levels along with the alcohol level in his blood, according to his theory it would have been through the roof.

To be fair though, I think he might be right that haematocrit concentration increases with dehydration.

If you have less body fluid then volume of blood plasma is reduced and the concentration of red blood cells in the same volume of blood is increased. I've read a bit of information that agrees:

http://www.surgeryencyclopedia.com/Fi-La/Hematocrit.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK259/

Increased heart rate is also associated with dehydration because along with reduced blood volume there is reduced blood pressure and the heart apparently beats faster to maintain the correct blood pressure.

But it seems too obvious for the doping tests not to take this into account.

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don simon fbpe | 8 years ago
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Quote:

the "victim surcharge" is a standard addition to most court imposed fines; it goes into a fund for helping victims of crime.

Thanks, didn't know this.

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rapid4 | 8 years ago
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Glad to see some of cycling's role models for our aspiring youth are just as bad as they are in other sports.

Plank.

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Bez | 8 years ago
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If there was ever a reminder that sports cyclists have no inherent basis for commenting on the needs of those of us who use the roads for transport…

Pretty sure it's been noted in various pro cyclist biographies that sports cyclists often tend to be quite reckless drivers.

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ChairRDRF replied to Bez | 8 years ago
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Bez wrote:

If there was ever a reminder that sports cyclists have no inherent basis for commenting on the needs of those of us who use the roads for transport…

Pretty sure it's been noted in various pro cyclist biographies that sports cyclists often tend to be quite reckless drivers.

Indeed. Ulrich (wiping out a row of cycle parking stands was apt) and Pantani come to mind.

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Leodis | 8 years ago
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He should look for another career.

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don simon fbpe | 8 years ago
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Quote:

a £20 victim surcharge

Who was the victim?
Let's hope that the boy has learnt something from these two strong lessons.

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Al__S replied to don simon fbpe | 8 years ago
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don simon wrote:
Quote:

a £20 victim surcharge

Who was the victim?
.

the "victim surcharge" is a standard addition to most court imposed fines; it goes into a fund for helping victims of crime.

As for him learning? Nah. Remember, he blamed his dodgy tests on binge drinking. I doubt he'll learn.

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