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Pakistan hosts 'world's toughest cycle race'

Afp, Khunjerab
Finishing nearly 5,000 metres above sea level after hundreds of kilometres winding past blackened glaciers and snow-capped peaks: a new Pakistani race presents a world-class challenge for cyclists --climbing towards the 'Roof of the World".
The Tour de Khunjerab — its name an homage to its more famous French counterpart, which began last Saturday - is still many years away from being another Big Loop, but with a solid claim to being the highest cycling race in the world, it has a lot to offer a certain type of athlete.
In the last week of June, some 88 cyclists, including two teams from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka as well as solo participants from Spain and Switzerland, took part in its second edition.
Less than half completed it within the allotted time
The four stages -- three ranging from 68 to 94 kilometres (42 to 58 miles) plus a shorter time trial - are much shorter than many other cycling events.
But there is one fundamental difference: the Pakistani Tour starts at 1,500 metres above sea level, and never stops climbing.
The final day of this year's event sums up the challenge.
Starting at 2,800 metres — higher than the Iseran Pass, the summit of the Tour de France - it ends at 4,700 metres, just over 100 metres short of Mont Blanc, Europe's highest mountain.
The Khunjerab Tour must become "an attraction... for the most daring and adventurous cyclists in the world", said Usman Ahmed, the top official for the northern Gilgit region, home to some of the planet's tallest peaks and where the race was held.
The cyclists' tyres swallow up the asphalt of the Karakoram Highway, one of the highest paved roads in the world.
Named after the Karakoram mountain range — just one of the ranges in Gilgit - the road passes through an extraordinary landscape.
Soaring, jagged peaks contrast with vertiginous ravines, glaciers driving a chill wind, and tumbling aquamarine rivers. Landslides are common.
Guardrails are a flimsy suggestion of protection from steep falls of hundreds of feet.
"There is no place in the world that offers all these things," said Ahmed.
"No doubt it is the toughest cycle race in the world. We are aiming to make it our trademark," said Haroon General, president of the Pakistan Cycling Federation.
"The most difficult part of the race is the final stage where cyclists face shortage of oxygen and there is risk of heart issues... At such an altitude a person falls down (faints) after running for 200 metres, but our cyclists travelled for almost 59 kilometres," he said.
Five ambulances were on standby in case of emergencies in the final stage, he said, adding: "A majority of the cyclists made it but the support staff needed ambulances."