LAHORE, Feb 21: Germany, Iran, Afghanistan and India have confirmed their participation in the 12th Tour de Pakistan cycle race to be held from March 11 to 23.

Pakistan Cycling Federation (PCF) secretary Idris Haider Khawaja said on Monday that all the foreign teams would send six cyclists and two officials, each for the country's biggest ever cycling event.

To a question the secretary said that Indian Cycling Federation would hopefully get the NOC from its government as other arrangements of their participation had been completed.

He said that the cyclists would pedal off from Quaid mausoleum in Karachi on March 11 at 9am and after covering a distance of 1934 kilometres comprises 11 stages would finish the race at Bab-i-Khyber, Peshawar on March 23.

A total cash prize of Rs1million would be distributed. Idris said that he tried his level best to generate US$ 100,000 for prize money, but so far, we have failed to make headway.

He said that a prize for the team winning a stage from Bahawalpur to Multan would also be given. He said that from Pakistan the teams of Army, Railways, Wapda, Sui Southern Gas and four provinces would take part.

He said that the PCF had given an amount of Rs 100,000 to each province to prepare their teams for participation. Earlier, the amount was Rs 50,000. To inspect the roads of the route, different teams of the federation would start functioning from Feb 22.

He said that the PCF had decided to start the race from Quetta but the recent rains had damaged the roads of the province therefore it returned to Karachi.

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