Sabir continues Tour domination

Army’s Rafique stands second in stage seven of cycling race.

KARACHI:

Tour de Pakistan progressed to its seventh stage with Wapda’s Sabir Ali maintaining the lead ahead of Army’s Mohammad Rafique.

Sabir covered the distance of 154 kilometres in four hours 34 minutes and 12 seconds from Multan to Sahiwal, while Rafiq finished 10 seconds slower, ahead of SSGC’s Sultan Aftab, who finished with a time of four hours 34 minutes and 32 seconds.

Sabir, who leads the trail with an overall margin of four minutes and 40 seconds among 56 other cyclists, expressed concerns about the change in the course as the Pakistan Cycling Federation (PCF) decided to end the 1,620-kilometre race in Abbottabad instead of Peshawar.

“I’m definitely a bit nervous about the track,” Sabir told The Express tribune. “Now I only have two days to stretch my lead because when it comes to a rocky track, the SSGC and Afghanistan cyclists will have an edge as they’ve grown up in similar terrains.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2011.