| 11/26/2001 | The first race in five years was held in the capital of Afghanistan on Sunday. About 20 cyclists showed up in full gear ready to race the 25 miles rough road across the former front lines of the battle to the town of Charikar at the base of the Panjsher valley.
The Taliban had outlawed all public sports events because they believed that Islamic law was against such events. "During Taliban times we weren't allowed to do sports, it was very difficult. Now with freedom we can do what we want, so we are organizing this race," Mahmood Azani, of Afghanistan's Olympic Committee, told Reuters television.
He said the race had been staged in honor of the late Ahmed Shah Masood, the Northern Alliance's legendary commander. Two assassins posing as journalists killed Masood in a bomb attack two days before the September 11 hijacked airliner assaults on New York and Washington, D.C.www.velonews.com
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