Jonathan Tiernan-Locke of Team Sky has denied that he requested the delay in his blood passport hearing in a public statement.

"Believe me, no-one has more reason to get this over and done with than I do,” he told local newspaper the Plymouth Herald.

Tiernan-Locke has been waiting for a hearing into his anomalous blood values since December 2013 and as a consequence he has been off Sky’s active roster since then, meaning he has spent more than 6 months off the bike. Earlier this week it was announced by the UK Anti Doping Agency (UKADA) that his hearing had been pushed back to the summer.

“I most certainly did not ask for any such thing – I just want this over and done with to clear my name and get my life back,” said Tiernan-Locke. "As I understand it, we were due to go to the hearing next week but one of my legal team is involved in another case and that has or is over-running by a couple of days.

“But that situation is enough to make it difficult to instantly set up a new hearing as both sides, witnesses and so on were affected. So, it was decided – not by me as the statement reads – that the hearing should be delayed.”

If Tiernan-Locke is unable to prove that his blood values were caused by a natural reason, he could face a two-year ban. He joined Sky in 2013 after a successful 2012 at Continental level which saw him win the Tour de Haut Var, Tour Méditerranéen and the Tour of Britain.

However, his WorldTour debut did not go smoothly as he only raced on 39 days and he really struggled to keep up with the ferocious pace of the events whilst his last events were the GPs of Montréal and Quebec in September. Due to his values, he was unable to ride the World Championships.

"I already feel as if I'm serving a suspension, and cannot move forward with my life until this whole thing is resolved," he said. "I know I'm innocent of anything and have stated that all along and yet this has been hanging over me since last September and originally, I believed the hearing would take place in March.

"We're now approaching June and there's still no resolution to it – I just hope this delay to the hearing doesn't drag on, for the longer it does, the longer me and my riding career are in limbo. I just want it settled and can assure everyone involved that the delay is not of my making."

UKADA have not publicly released the new date for the hearing.