 In 2014, his 2012 Tour of Britain win was stripped following the identification of anomalies in his biological passport data from around the time of that race, and he was banned from competition until the end of 2015.Tiernan-Locke started mountain bike racing at the age of 15 before taking up road racing in 2003 when he was 18.He progressed rapidly from 4th Category to 1st Category in a matter of months and for 2004 was offered the chance to ride for the French Amateur team U.V.