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Steven de Jongh has left his role as sporting director at Team Sky after admitting taking performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career.

De Jongh, 38, is the third staff member to leave Team Sky in the last week.

The British team has a zero-tolerance approach to drugs and has asked staff to sign a statement declaring they have had no previous involvement in doping.

"Steven deserves our respect for the courage he's shown in being honest," said team principal Dave Brailsford.

"There's no doubt about Steven's work with us or his approach. He's been a highly-valued sports director and colleague over three seasons.

"He has our best wishes for the next step in his career."

Sky race coach Bobby Julich left the team on Thursday after admitting to using the blood-boosting agent EPO when a rider.

Lead sports director Sean Yates, the 1992 British champion who left Sky on Sunday, although the team said his departure was not a result of their zero-tolerance anti-doping stance.

The 52-year-old is one of only five Britons to wear the yellow jersey and also won stages in the Tour and Vuelta a Espana in 1988.

Both Yates and Julich worked with disgraced American cyclist Lance Armstrong during their careers.

Yates rode with a young Armstrong at Motorola and, after moving into coaching, was reunited with Armstrong at Discovery in 2005, when the American won the last of his seven now-rescinded titles.

Armstrong and Yates also worked together in 2009 at Astana, when Armstrong finished third behind team-mate and winner Alberto Contador.

Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles after a United States Anti-Doping Agency report described him as a "serial" doping cheat.