Iranian dopers or not?

frenchfighter
frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
edited June 2014 in Pro race
Good article:
http://cyclingtips.com.au/2014/06/irani ... lanations/

No wonder debate is raging; rarely has a level of domination by one country’s riders been seen so prominently as at the recent Tour de Singkarak. Three teams of Iranian riders were amongst the field in the 2.2 Indonesian event, and they utterly decimated the field.

On stage two all but one of the top ten were from Iran; Hossein Alizadeh (Tabriz Shahrdari) won from a break ahead of Pishgaman Yazd trio Arvin Moazemi Goudarzi, Amir Zargari and Rahim Emami plus two other Iranians; the next riders – three out of four of whom were from that country – were five minutes back, with the peloton a further one minute 17 seconds in arrears.

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From the little I have seen of these guys in various races over the years it is blatantly obvious they are not clean. Very surprised they are even allowed to participate.
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Comments

  • hammerite
    hammerite Posts: 3,408
    It's certainly something quite interesting. I was wondering what was different to Iran to the rest of their region - if not the whole of Asia. Watching them play football the other night it became clear that they're no whipping boys. They have a decent qualification record for World Cups, certainly better than most other Asian country, with the exceptions of Japan and South Korea. It made me think of them being pretty good cyclists too.

    Now football can be effected by PEDs, but a lot less than in cycling - skill and ability comes in to it a bit more - especially when playing the big sides. According to football commentators the football team struggle for funding, so how do they do so well compared to other Asian/Middle Eastern countries? Is there something in their culture/history which makes them better or more organised when it comes to sport than their local competitors? Is this reflected in their cycling too?
  • axlightness
    axlightness Posts: 20
    The Iranian team were told not to swap shirts as they do not have the means to replace them.
  • smokey_bacon
    smokey_bacon Posts: 1,639
    I kind of appreciate the points that Brad Hall is trying to make. I don't believe however that they translate into such crushing (to use the articles term) time differences at races. It appears very very suspicious indeed.
  • ozzzyosborn206
    ozzzyosborn206 Posts: 1,340
    On. The. Gear
  • Bo Duke
    Bo Duke Posts: 1,058
    They did exactly the same last year, the Tour of Borneo was a joke. They only race on the Asian circuit because doping controls are non existent.

    Its all over the net, just google iranian cycling doping etc..
    'Performance analysis and Froome not being clean was a media driven story. I haven’t heard one guy in the peloton say a negative thing about Froome, and I haven’t heard a single person in the peloton suggest Froome isn’t clean.' TSP
  • wombly_knees
    wombly_knees Posts: 657
    They also dominated the Tours of Qinghai Lake, Philippines, Singkarak and Iran (Azerbaijan). Two of them definitely had dope tests. Then there's also administrative reasons why they may never go professional continental. Also, team sky doping is all over the net. That's hardly proof of anything.

    Didn't the Tour of Mediterranean have no dope tests in 2012? Doubt the .2 rated races, and maybe even .1s, have strict doping controls anywhere, although I could be very wrong. Certainly not in Africa and the Americas afaik.

    Incidentally, the Tour of Borneo didn't have doping controls in 2012 either. No questions, only celebration from the very same team that's having a pop here. Genesys have form for crying foul each time they lose. They did so too when Oscar Pujol, who had just dropped out of WT, had a good ride to win Singkarak.

    Also heard from an Iranian that their salary figures quoted are quite likely bullshit. There are surely Iranians doping (Mirsamad Pourseyede being one of them in the past, maybe now too), but combining them as one could just be as lazy as saying Brits dope because they beat dopers by a big margin in the biggest race.
  • Omar Little
    Omar Little Posts: 2,010
    I have a friend in their olympic programme and it seems to me like the coaching set up, facilities etc on offer are pretty good. They are based in part of a multi sport complex with athlete accomodation, coaches, food etc all on site. All that provides a good environment to concentrate on training and recovery that i dont think will be available to most other countries in the region - although it would be foolish to discount that doping could be a factor too.
  • top_bhoy
    top_bhoy Posts: 1,424
    Omar Little wrote:
    I have a friend in their olympic programme and it seems to me like the coaching set up, facilities etc on offer are pretty good. They are based in part of a multi sport complex with athlete accomodation, coaches, food etc all on site. All that provides a good environment to concentrate on training and recovery that i dont think will be available to most other countries in the region - although it would be foolish to discount that doping could be a factor too.

    That account would appear to be a direct contradiction to the situation the Iranian football team who are currently strutting their stuff at the World Cup in Brazil, find themselves in.

    http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/27936936

    Carlos Queiroz complaining of a lack of financial support and is quitting.

    Taking the two situations in comparison, having a well funded multisport Olympic programme and an inadequately funded World cup football team with the gaze of the world upon them playing a team with Messi in it, it's not consistent.

    The real situation will lie somewhere in between....but where?
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  • hammerite
    hammerite Posts: 3,408
    Top_Bhoy wrote:

    Taking the two situations in comparison, having a well funded multisport Olympic programme and an inadequately funded World cup football team with the gaze of the world upon them playing a team with Messi in it, it's not consistent.

    The real situation will lie somewhere in between....but where?

    Using that well respected source of valid information (wikipedia) apparently Iran performed better than any Middle Eastern/South Asian nation ever has at the 2012 Olympics - 12 medals inc 4 golds. Make of that what you will.
  • wombly_knees
    wombly_knees Posts: 657
    Their wrestlers are better than ours, and have been for the past 60 years. That's the bulk of their medals all the time. Although, going into doping in wrestling opens a completely different can of worms...

    Won't read too much into their being the best Mid Eastern or South Asian nation because, to be fair, beating South Asian nations is hardly an achievement in sports. Apart from cricket and hockey in the era of the grass pitches, we've been shit at sports. The neighbours are hardly any better, if not worse.
  • cougie
    cougie Posts: 22,512
    How expensive is doping anyway ?

    Seems to me that if they can't afford to replace some jersies - they cant afford the dope ?

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