Tiernan-Locke now looks ready to fulfil his potential

Columnist and Senior Features Writer

Saturday 8 September 2012

HE was the stand-out star of last year's Tour of Britain, the little-known rider who broke away from the pack to entertain with his punchy and fearless ascents.

Tiernan-Locke: 'I went to university, forgot about cycling and did the same as everyone else, spending my student loan on getting drunk'

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Susan Swarbrick

It was a plucky performance that saw Jonathan Tiernan-Locke win the King of the Mountains title and earn a fifth place finish overall.

Then with the Rapha Condor Sharp team, Tiernan-Locke was subsequently signed by Livingston-based Endura Racing, and made an impressive start to the 2012 season with wins in Le Tour Mediterraneen, Tour du Haut Var and Tour of Alsace.

Tiernan-Locke spent four months on top of the UCI Europe Tour rankings, prompting the cycling world to sit up and take notice. The big guns began to woo him, among them Team Sky who the 27-year-old is rumoured to have signed with for 2013. He joined the squad at a training camp in Tenerife in April and the cat was out of the bag when his Giant bike was spotted alongside a row of Pinarellos in a hotel luggage store. The Plymouth-born rider looks likely to be included in the Team GB line-up for this month's UCI Road Cycling World Championships in Limburg, Netherlands. First, though, his sights are firmly on the Tour of Britain which starts in Ipswich tomorrow and arrives in the Scottish Borders on Tuesday. "To win? Yeah, of course, that's the goal," he told Herald Sport. "You look at the calibre of some of the guys riding and I'm under no illusions that it's going to be difficult. I was good last year but lacked a bit of confidence. Physically this year I'm better, and mentally a lot stronger."Tiernan-Locke's back story is one potted with near misses and what-could-have-beens. He started on the UK junior mountain biking scene before moving to the road at 18. He signed with French amateur team UV Aube in 2004 and was selected for the British Under-23 team.The following year, he joined another French team, CC Etupes, claiming a podium spot in his first 10 races. But then Tiernan-Locke was floored by a debilitating bout of Epstein-Barr virus which forced him to stop racing and turn his back on cycling completely. For three years he didn't even look at a bike, but went to university to study automotive product design. He put on two stone, drank and partied hard. "I forgot about cycling," he said. "I got a different set of mates and did what everyone did: spent my student loan getting drunk."Looking back now, was he perhaps channelling a bit of anger at an opportunity lost? "It was difficult when I would glance at results and see guys I had been amateur with go on to professional teams and riding the Tour de France," he admits. "I would think, 'man, that could have been me'. I knew within myself that I was good enough and would often reflect on what could have been."In 2008 Tiernan-Locke took a job in a friend's bike shop in Devon during the summer holidays. Slowly but surely, the cycling spark was reignited. Plowman Craven-Madison took him on for 2009 but when the team folded mid-season, Tiernan-Locke was back to square one. "I'd heard about Sky starting up and saw Plowman Craven as a stepping stone," he said. "It was an absolute joke, though. I didn't get one pay cheque. Some of the other guys stuck it out, but I don't suffer fools gladly. I went back to work in the shop."Out of the blue, John Herety, Rapha Condor Sharp's directeur sportif, contacted him. "I almost didn't sign," he said. "I was considering giving it all up and merely riding as a hobby." Tiernan-Locke initially struggled to find his feet. "I'm not going to say favourites, but John had a A team and a B team and I was put in some pretty rubbish races," he recalls. "By the end of that first year [2010] I realised I hadn't lived the life of a professional cyclist. I was doing everything I would have done if I'd had a nine-to-five job, going out on weekends and then turning up to bike races. I was relying on a bit of natural ability, bare bones training and carrying too much weight. It wasn't until 2011 that I decided it was time for a kick up the arse."What was the catalyst? "I realised it was now or never," he admitted. "I thought, 'I can either stay at this level and ride these races forever or make the step up'. I knew I would be annoyed with myself if I didn't give it a go."Having used the 2011 Tour of Britain as a "shop window" to showcase his abilities, the past year has been about building on that success, not least Tiernan-Locke being announced earlier this week as part of the British team long-list for the world championships. He said: "I have spoken with the selectors and it's not guaranteed, but they have said 'assume you are going'. I believe I can go out there and do the job. I have the confidence now to not be afraid of that. "When I went to the junior worlds in 2004 I didn't have a clue about road racing. All of my results had been down to a bit of luck, being strong or a race finishing on a hill. I had no tactical awareness. It was too early for me then, but I feel ready for it now."As for that rumoured signing with Sky, Tiernan-Locke remains tight lipped, but he is open about his aspirations to ride with a World Tour team. "I'm confident in my abilities," he said. "I know I can be good at the next level up and deliver what is asked of me. I feel lucky to have this opportunity: a couple of years ago it could have gone either way."

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Tiernan-Locke now looks ready to fulfil his potential

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