The Quest for Truth

It's always difficult following cycling with the problems that seem to follow it. One reformed doper who can be admired for his comeback into the sport and campaigning for it to be clean is planning his final year in the professional peloton. He's aiming for some stage wins in some big races, which means that, even with Ned Boulting's suggestions, he is unlikely to finish his career on the Tour of Britain.

The Tour of Britain is part of what could turn out to be a massive disappointment in British cycling as Jon Tiernan-Locke is having to defend himself against a case brought by the UCI which suggests some irregularity in his biological passport, dating from before he joined Team Sky.

I hope it ends up that he is clean for the sake of cycling, and British cycling in particular. So far there has been little suspicion over the British system and this would undermine it to an extent. Given that it's likely that he has been clean under the Sky system this season his results have been underwhelming to say the least. When you compare them to the season in question where he racked up wins including the Tour of Britain you can see extra weight to the suspicions. With the UCI looking to clean up the sport, and on the hunt for anyone breaking the rules then it's not looking great for the rider who looked so much to be a big hope.

Let's hope that we're all wrong.

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