Stage set for Tour de Pakistan
Organisers hopeful on foreign teams taking part in event.
LAHORE:
The longest cycling race in Asia, the Tour de Pakistan covering 1,629 kilometers, will paddle off from Karachi on March 8 and will pass through eight cities before culminating at Abbottabad.
The Pakistan Cycling Federation (PCF) Secretary and the event’s organising secretary Idrees Khawaja claimed that cyclists from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Republic of Seychelles, Austria and India are expected to participate in the 13-day event.
Apart from the international participants, nine local teams will also take part in the event.
“Ensuring the event is arranged in the best possible manner, we’ve already written to the provincial governments and since most of the stages take place in Punjab, we have asked them for their cooperation,” said Khawaja.
However, he warned that most of the international participants refused to come to Pakistan due to security concerns and the race might take place without a lot of entrants.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 23rd, 2011.
The longest cycling race in Asia, the Tour de Pakistan covering 1,629 kilometers, will paddle off from Karachi on March 8 and will pass through eight cities before culminating at Abbottabad.
The Pakistan Cycling Federation (PCF) Secretary and the event’s organising secretary Idrees Khawaja claimed that cyclists from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Republic of Seychelles, Austria and India are expected to participate in the 13-day event.
Apart from the international participants, nine local teams will also take part in the event.
“Ensuring the event is arranged in the best possible manner, we’ve already written to the provincial governments and since most of the stages take place in Punjab, we have asked them for their cooperation,” said Khawaja.
However, he warned that most of the international participants refused to come to Pakistan due to security concerns and the race might take place without a lot of entrants.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 23rd, 2011.