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Are Iranians just taking the piss now?

So looking around at the recent Tour of Japan stage on top of Mt Fujji, I couldnt help but laugh my ballsack off.

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Iranians have been making a complete mockery of these Asians races for years now and it seems to be getting even more and more ridiculous. I mean look at number 3, Hossein Askari one of Iran's most legendary cyclists, his results have been on the decline for years and has now been having a true rennaisance year at age 40 (!)

e1db55ed8d.png


So has anyone been following these guys and know more of their history and if anyone notorious is running these teams? They are really intriguing me.
 
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I would like to see mirsamad pourseyedigolakhour in the maillot jaune :eek:

His name screams legend!!

Seems he was banned from 2011 to 2013 for EPO use..

Won't bother look the other ones up :p
 
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Ben Dybal was the first man to ever go under 40 minutes for that climb, back in 2013. He's around the same mark this year, but the Iranians are putting 1.5 minutes into him.

It's complete and utter BS.
 
I don't get it.
Whats it good for?
I can understand the Armstrong drive. Even the Sky setup.
A Qatari team emerging? Well, ok its all business.
A free pass for the Hotsteppers in the spring classics can be explained.

But a bunch of Iranians killing all the Asian riders in Japan? Why the repeat invite?

I.Don't. Get. It.
 
Re:

Dazed and Confused said:
I don't get it.
Whats it good for?
I can understand the Armstrong drive. Even the Sky setup.
A Qatari team emerging? Well, ok its all business.
A free pass for the Hotsteppers in the spring classics can be explained.

But a bunch of Iranians killing all the Asian riders in Japan? Why the repeat invite?

I.Don't. Get. It.

I remember Ryo saying something about how cycling is the sport of the elites in Iran and that therefore the Iranian cycling scene is a bunch of tinkovs investing cos they like it. But it was Ryo so maybe it's bs.
 
Re: Re:

The Hitch said:
Dazed and Confused said:
I don't get it.
Whats it good for?
I can understand the Armstrong drive. Even the Sky setup.
A Qatari team emerging? Well, ok its all business.
A free pass for the Hotsteppers in the spring classics can be explained.

But a bunch of Iranians killing all the Asian riders in Japan? Why the repeat invite?

I.Don't. Get. It.

I remember Ryo saying something about how cycling is the sport of the elites in Iran and that therefore the Iranian cycling scene is a bunch of tinkovs investing cos they like it. But it was Ryo so maybe it's bs.
I don't know if there's "a bunch of Tinkovs" but certainly there are a couple of people high up in Iranian cycling who are big oil/gas producers who plough money into cycling because they like it. Ryo isn't wrong there. There are some pretty good salaries available for pro riders in Iran and a well developed national scene, however there are also other issues. Because of sanctions getting visas to race can be difficult especially in Europe and the US, so getting past the Asia Tour is not easy (being mostly comprised of .2 races, quite a few races will see Iranian teams who ride full time and are paid well competing against part timers from East and Southeast Asia and semi-pro Europeans who've moved over from competing in Europe like José Toribio, Óscar Pujol and Thomas Lebas). Another issue is that because of sanctions Iran has to produce a lot of chemicals and pharmaceuticals itself, and according to the article posted on the race thread in the PRR forum earlier today this means pharmaceuticals can be procured very quickly and easily and with many Asia Tour races lacking the necessary funds for blood testing or labs capable of obtaining longitudinal positives, the comparative ease with which they could get away with turning their blood into tar to win bike races as long as they're not welcome at many races where the testing is good means it's hard to believe they're not filling themselves with juice.

Pourseyedi, for example, was domestiquing for the same guys now slaving for him a few years ago; he changed teams to Azad University and promptly won the International Presidency Tour (a very difficult mountainous race north of Tehran) before testing positive. He returned from his ban directly to a contract with Tabriz Petrochemical, the team he'd previously been a dom at, and won Qinghai Lake instantly. Since his ban he's a completely changed rider. Rahim Emami, who won today, tested positive at the same race as Pourseyedi, returned at the same time, took a bit longer to hit his stride (a week into the race rather than day 3) and has mostly spent his time being beaten up by Tabriz Petrochemical, but this year Pishgaman Yazd look to have upped the stakes this year while previously promising youngsters like Kolahdouz haven't stepped forward for Tabriz behind Pourseyedi as anticipated. Hossein Alizadeh managed to escape Iranian cycling a few years ago but was ill-suited to Amore e Vita and returned to Iran with his star fading, while the ones signed to WT teams for their UCI points had little to no impact, but then by most accounts never really fitted in to the teams.

As for, do we know some of the people out there? Well, in addition to the good funding for Iranian cycling, they have picked up the occasional surprising name. Mathieu Perget, ex of Caisse d'Epargne and Ag2r, is currently with Pishgaman Yazd, for example, while Óscar Pujol rode half a season with Azad University as did Libardo Niño. Andrey Mizourov rode for Tabriz for a while - even winning the Kazakh national championships for them, which was the source of some embarrassment for Astana! - Markus Eibegger and Boris Shpilevsky have been there too, and Tobias Erler. The article I mentioned earlier pointed out a few ex-DDR cycling coaches have been found in Iranian cycling, as well.
 
They live like professionals and come from altitude. The competition is these Asian races is third or fourth tier Australians. Who is this Ben Dybal you speak of? Oh, 33rd in the Tour of Korea and 10th in the mountain competition in the Cycle Classic of New Zealand. Well then whoever beats a guy like that must be doping real hard.

edit I mean sure they are probably using but what about the next guys? Like Francisco Mancebo. Dybal and the rest of the Avanti team whoever they are. LS: why are Iranian teams not welcome at races with testing?
 
Re:

ciranda said:
They live like professionals and come from altitude. The competition is these Asian races is third or fourth tier Australians. Who is this Ben Dybal you speak of? Oh, 33rd in the Tour of Korea and 10th in the mountain competition in the Cycle Classic of New Zealand. Well then whoever beats a guy like that must be doping real hard.

edit I mean sure they are probably using but what about the next guys? Like Francisco Mancebo. Dybal and the rest of the Avanti team whoever they are. LS: why are Iranian teams not welcome at races with testing?

well, mancebo is a doper who used to beat the crap out of the altitude myth on the Americas continent only a few years ago.
 
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classicomano said:
So looking around at the recent Tour of Japan stage on top of Mt Fujji, I couldnt help but laugh my ballsack off.

29d09d39b5.png


Iranians have been making a complete mockery of these Asians races for years now and it seems to be getting even more and more ridiculous. I mean look at number 3, Hossein Askari one of Iran's most legendary cyclists, his results have been on the decline for years and has now been having a true rennaisance year at age 40 (!)

e1db55ed8d.png


So has anyone been following these guys and know more of their history and if anyone notorious is running these teams? They are really intriguing me.

Its cos the Europeans and Americans and the Australians will have no bar of the Persians, they are persona non grata on the international stage because of geopolitik[sic]
I remember in the early part of the noughties decade with Tabriz Petrochemical used to rip up Langkawi and Hosni Sohrabi always used to threaten the podium or may have had one or two GC podiums cos of Genting Highlands.
Before the GFC then the indo's stop funding LAngkawi to the same budget.

hey, why cant the Persians dope as much as the Euros and Aussies?
 
Re:

ciranda said:
They live like professionals and come from altitude. The competition is these Asian races is third or fourth tier Australians. Who is this Ben Dybal you speak of? Oh, 33rd in the Tour of Korea and 10th in the mountain competition in the Cycle Classic of New Zealand. Well then whoever beats a guy like that must be doping real hard.

edit I mean sure they are probably using but what about the next guys? Like Francisco Mancebo. Dybal and the rest of the Avanti team whoever they are. LS: why are Iranian teams not welcome at races with testing?

The utter failure of Zargari and Sohrabi in Europe shows once again how clueless you are.
 
Re:

blackcat said:
is it Hosni Sobrahdi not Hosni Sohrabi
Hossein Askari. You're mixing him up with Mehdi Sohrabi.

Askari along with Ghader Mizbani were up in the mix in Langkawi usually around the mid-2000s, before then I can't see much of a record of Iranian success at the race. Though they typically put somebody up and around the top 10, the first really successful year was 2010, when the race backed into March meaning a few fewer Euro teams as it couldn't be used as pre-season warmup to the same extent, and you had Askari 3rd, Zargari 5th and Mizbani 9th. The Iranians were already the dominant force on the Asia Tour by that point, but since then they've kicked it to another gear.
 
Re:

ciranda said:
They live like professionals and come from altitude. The competition is these Asian races is third or fourth tier Australians. Who is this Ben Dybal you speak of? Oh, 33rd in the Tour of Korea and 10th in the mountain competition in the Cycle Classic of New Zealand. Well then whoever beats a guy like that must be doping real hard.

edit I mean sure they are probably using but what about the next guys? Like Francisco Mancebo. Dybal and the rest of the Avanti team whoever they are. LS: why are Iranian teams not welcome at races with testing?
It's not so much that they're not welcome at races with testing, more so that they're not welcome at most North American and EU races and obtaining visas to compete in those regions is a logistical nightmare for them, hence their calendar remains the same most years.

roundabout said:
The utter failure of Zargari and Sohrabi in Europe shows once again how clueless you are.

While their abject failure in Europe is a pretty obvious part as to why we're discussing it here, there is more to it. Again, the article that was discussed in the PRR forum brought up a point on this; the interviewer spoke to Sohrabi while he was with Lotto, where he was roomed up with one of the U23s and basically left to his own devices, and he didn't adapt. Just like Chaoufi at Euskaltel, basically he was bought for his UCI points and the team had little interest in him, he got unmotivated which further helped him to fail. I don't buy that 2012 Lotto was super squeaky clean, but any team programs etc. they obviously didn't want to include Sohrabi in and, assuming they probably expected his Asia Tour performances to have involved charging, didn't want to risk entering him in races where he was glowing and getting the bad rep, especially when Euskaltel's cheap points signing, Aleksandr Serebryakov, tested positive early in the season before he'd done more than a handful of race days. In addition to this Sohrabi's results since returning to Iran are nothing on what they were beforehand.
 
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Libertine Seguros said:
While their abject failure in Europe is a pretty obvious part as to why we're discussing it here, there is more to it. Again, the article that was discussed in the PRR forum brought up a point on this; the interviewer spoke to Sohrabi while he was with Lotto, where he was roomed up with one of the U23s and basically left to his own devices, and he didn't adapt. Just like Chaoufi at Euskaltel, basically he was bought for his UCI points and the team had little interest in him, he got unmotivated which further helped him to fail. I don't buy that 2012 Lotto was super squeaky clean, but any team programs etc. they obviously didn't want to include Sohrabi in and, assuming they probably expected his Asia Tour performances to have involved charging, didn't want to risk entering him in races where he was glowing and getting the bad rep, especially when Euskaltel's cheap points signing, Aleksandr Serebryakov, tested positive early in the season before he'd done more than a handful of race days. In addition to this Sohrabi's results since returning to Iran are nothing on what they were beforehand.
another from outside the traditional system (tho at the amateur clubs in France or the World Cycling Academy in Aigle) + Tunisian Rafaa Chtioui the ttist. I think he won a l'Avenir tt or prologue. Or I remember him winning a major espoir tt, i dont think it was the spoir Worlds (u23) i think that was a disappointing effort (i might be wrong). I cant be bothered googling, and besides Libertine Seguros has a better memory, and more comprehensive than me, so LS will know. And Rafaa Chtioui kept strict Ramadan and halal diet I think, and Euro teams did not wanna bar of that. Atleast, this is how I remember.

obviously, PEDs is halal. wonder if it is kosher!
 
Re: Re:

roundabout said:
ciranda said:
They live like professionals and come from altitude. The competition is these Asian races is third or fourth tier Australians. Who is this Ben Dybal you speak of? Oh, 33rd in the Tour of Korea and 10th in the mountain competition in the Cycle Classic of New Zealand. Well then whoever beats a guy like that must be doping real hard.

edit I mean sure they are probably using but what about the next guys? Like Francisco Mancebo. Dybal and the rest of the Avanti team whoever they are. LS: why are Iranian teams not welcome at races with testing?

The utter failure of Zargari and Sohrabi in Europe shows once again how clueless you are.


Huh, so everyone with results in Asian races must naturally be in the elite if they get to Europe.

If no testing is done in these races others can take advantage too, obviously.
 
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Re: Re:

ciranda said:
roundabout said:
ciranda said:
They live like professionals and come from altitude. The competition is these Asian races is third or fourth tier Australians. Who is this Ben Dybal you speak of? Oh, 33rd in the Tour of Korea and 10th in the mountain competition in the Cycle Classic of New Zealand. Well then whoever beats a guy like that must be doping real hard.

edit I mean sure they are probably using but what about the next guys? Like Francisco Mancebo. Dybal and the rest of the Avanti team whoever they are. LS: why are Iranian teams not welcome at races with testing?

The utter failure of Zargari and Sohrabi in Europe shows once again how clueless you are.


Huh, so everyone with results in Asian races must naturally be in the elite if they get to Europe.

If no testing is done in these races others can take advantage too, obviously.

no

see the results of the Persians in the Olympics rr.

they come in with the sag wagon
 
Re:

ciranda said:
They live like professionals and come from altitude. The competition is these Asian races is third or fourth tier Australians. Who is this Ben Dybal you speak of? Oh, 33rd in the Tour of Korea and 10th in the mountain competition in the Cycle Classic of New Zealand. Well then whoever beats a guy like that must be doping real hard.

edit I mean sure they are probably using but what about the next guys? Like Francisco Mancebo. Dybal and the rest of the Avanti team whoever they are. LS: why are Iranian teams not welcome at races with testing?
I enjoy reading your posts... You are either the most naive person on the CN Forum, or you think WE are dumb enough to drink the kool aid your drinking... Either way, you always entertain! lol :D
 

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