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Lycra-clad women blaze cycling trail in Pakistan

Pakistani female cyclist Misbah Mushtaq, left, waits while a team member affixes a number to her shirt prior to the start of the PSO Tour of Islamabad road race in Islamabad last Friday. The tour was one of the first events of its kind in Pakistan and was held to raise money for child victims of the devastating 2005 earthquake. PHOTO: AFP

In Pakistan, where burqas are more widespread than lycra, nearly 50 foreign cyclists including four former world champions and several women have taken part in a trailblazing road race.

The PSO Tour of Islamabad, which ended on Sunday, is one of the first events of its kind in this conservative South Asian nation and was held to raise money for child victims of the devastating 2005 Pakistan earthquake.

Participants said it had given them a new view of a country which is trying to overcome bad press because of terrorist violence after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, political instability and concerns about women's rights.

"People are super-nice, everyone wants to say hi," said Anne-Marie LeFrancois, from Vancouver, Canada, a former world-class skiier who competed in the the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and has held the Canadian Super G and Downill skiing championship titles.

Conservative dress is normally a must in Pakistan and women are not encouraged to play sports.

Female cricketers are strictly forbidden from wearing shorts and T-shirts, while the hardline government in North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan, banned male coaches from training females in 2003.

Riots erupted in the eastern city of Gujranwala in April 2005, after police stopped a group of armed Islamic activists from disrupting a mini-marathon involving female competitors.

However, LeFrancois said she and the other competitors had encountered no difficulties with local people despite wearing fluorescent lycra cycling gear during the tour, a three-stage race spread over three days.

"We got stared at a bit but that is par for the course," LeFrancois said. "It's just curiosity, people asking `how on earth did they get here?' They are really respectful."

Other top cyclists in the tour, which featured 10 international teams and three Pakistani teams, included Germany's Faris al-Sultan, the World Champion Ironman Triathlon in 2005 and Tim Vincent of New Zealand, last year's world 24-hour mountain bike champion.

Ahad Kazmemisarai of Iran and Brita Martin of Germany were the overall winners of the Islamabad tour.

The organizers of the race, the Kaghan Memorial Trust, and its backers Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and Pakistan's Ministry of Tourism, said it was a good way both to promote cycling in Pakistan and to promote Pakistan abroad.

The trust raises funds to build schools for children in Pakistan's northern Kaghan Valley.
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