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.