{"id":477373,"date":"2026-02-13T13:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/477373\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T13:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:11:08","slug":"dominance-and-doubt-analysts-address-doping-talk-around-uae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/477373\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominance and doubt: Analysts address doping talk around UAE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pro cycling has a pretty rough history of doping, so it\u2019s not surprising when riders dominate, that\u2019s the first thought. Tadej Poga\u010dar, and in fact many of his UAE Team Emirates \u00e9quipiers, have been doing this for a while. Pogi\u2019s incredible run of wins \u2014 and by an incredible margin \u2014 have raised eyebrows over the years. Even the other day when he posted his Strava numbers<\/a> \u2014 a rarity with many pros these days \u2014 fans were all like\u2026whoa. So it\u2019s not surprising \u2014 especially given some of the folks associated with the team \u2014 scrutiny follows.<\/p>\n

Writing in Wielerrevue<\/a>, former Conti rider, now journalist and DS Thijs Zonneveld spoke about doping rumours which pop up now and again. \u201cThe evidence is zero, but the skepticism is completely justified,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Zonneveld said that skepticism with regards to UAE doesn\u2019t exactly come out of nowhere. The team\u2019s leadership includes some dudes who were previously connected to some big-time doping-era controversies, notably UAE manager Mauro Gianetti. Given cycling\u2019s history, he said, it is understandable that people question things.<\/p>\n

During the 1998 Tour de Romandie, Mauro Gianetti abandoned a stage and later fell unconscious. He then spent 10 days in intensive care as doctors initially searched for the cause of his life-threatening condition. Two physicians suspected the use of a blood oxygen\u2013enhancing substance and alerted authorities, but Gianetti later pursued legal action that halted the public release of the investigation.<\/a> Plus, during his time with the former Saunier Duval team, there were a few other doping incidents, involving riders like Riccardo Ricc\u00f2<\/a> and Juan Jos\u00e9 Cobo.<\/a><\/p>\n

But, he also said that just because you go faster doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re cheating. Simply put there is no concrete evidence implicating the team. \u201cPerformance alone cannot serve as a verdict,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n

So how does he explain UAE\u2019s sustained edge? Zonneveld points first to cash. Backed by some pretty deep pockets, the team has been able to recruit and retain top-tier talent. In a market where every WorldTour squad pursues emerging stars, UAE\u2019s budget often proves decisive.<\/p>\n

Zonneveld adds that today\u2019s anti-doping framework \u2014 particularly the biological passport system \u2014 makes organized, team-wide programs far harder to conceal. Individual manipulation may still be possible, he suggests, but a coordinated operation improving an entire roster would be extremely difficult to hide.<\/p>\n

The Dutchman is far from the first person to talk about riders like Pogi and doping. Tour de France boss Christian Prudhomme was asked<\/a> if he thought riders like the current world champion might be on gear.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the recent history of cycling, the question is not illegitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonas Vingegaard claps back about doping after incredible climbing speeds<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

He went on to compare the Slovenian to riders like Eddy Merckx or Bernard Hinault. \u201cWe are seeing champions who are present from the beginning to the end of the season,\u201d he said. \u201cWith the desire to win everything. This makes him resemble Merckx and also Hinault. For years, I\u2019ve heard Bernard say that riders need to rediscover the joy of racing. And that\u2019s exactly what Poga\u010dar is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

As you can imagine, Poga\u010dar has been asked many times about doping. In cycling, it\u2019s usually been guilty before proven innocent, given its history. \u201cCycling is a victim of its past, but it would be stupid to risk your health for 10 years of a career,\u201d Pogi, said<\/a>. \u201cThere will always be jealousies and suspicions; so I can\u2019t do anything about it. These stories of domination exist everywhere, in business as in sport. It lasts a few years until a new talent arrives. If you go and put your health at risk for 10 years of your career, it\u2019s like throwing away your life: I don\u2019t want to risk getting sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have not been any notable doping incidents for years \u2014 usually it\u2019s lower-level riders. There has been nothing like the Lance Armstrong or Festina affair, or scandals like Operaci\u00f3n Puerto. If anyone gets popped, it\u2019s usually been riders on Conti teams (or masters doing Gran Fondos<\/a>\u2026)<\/p>\n

If there ever were a high-level incident, it would most likely devastate the sport, given how we are told over and over that cycling is clean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pro cycling has a pretty rough history of doping, so it\u2019s not surprising when riders dominate, that\u2019s the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,6495,166008,85,6494,242947],"class_list":{"0":"post-477373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-jonas-vingegaard","12":"tag-mauro-gianetti","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tadej-pogacar","15":"tag-team-uae-emirates"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}