Afghan Women’s Cycling Team placed 2nd, 3rd among 25 countries

The National Women Cycling Team of Afghanistan has secured the second and third positions in a major international race, Cyclosportive Albigeoise, held in France on Sunday.

Three Afghan girls Zhala, Masoma, and Zahra who are famous as the little queens of Kabul have spent the last two weeks training in France, and three of them competed and owned 2nd and 3rd places among the 25 countries.

This was the first time Afghan girls were racing with “boys and girls” from different countries including the Europe, United States and Asia.

In Afghanistan, where women can be killed for a small affront to its conservative culture, biking can be unimaginable for almost 99 percent of the Afghan girls, but the three brave Afghan girls worked so hard and are now an inspiration to women everywhere.

Masoma Alizada, 19, who has own the second place in the competition says she feels ‘free’ when she ride bicycle in France compare to Afghanistan while the racing at an international competition in France has never been ‘imagined’ for Zahra Alizada, another member of the team.

“This is surely still unbelievable even for ourselves, but we tried hardly a lot to achieve this,” Zhala Sarmast, 17, the smallest and the smartest member of the Afghan Cycling Team said.

Afghanistan’s team was trained under the guidance of Rolland Gilles and Claudia Gillas, world champions, for 12 days in France where the Afghan team proudly stood on the first line on the start stage of competition and were very proud with Afghanistan flag on their shirts as said.

Zhala says the Afghan girls have been qualified for the world championship in Australia, which is going to be held in September 2016.

Afghan cyclist will arrive at the Hamid Karzai International Airport on Thursday at 09:00 am with their international medals and cups for their country.

The Albigeoise is an official French qualifying event for the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships which will be held in Perth, Australia in early September 2016. The event is open to licensed and non-licensed riders.