Tour starts in Bagerhat tomorrow

Fortune Tour de Bangladesh, a cycling competition styled after Tour de France, gets underway tomorrow morning at the Bagerhat District Stadium. A total of 40 cyclists from eight teams will set off from the stadium at 8:00am and will wrap up the day at the Gopalganj District Stadium, after having cycled through 55 kilometres of road.

Organised jointly by Bangladesh Edible Oil Limited and Bangladesh Cycling Federation, the event will be inaugurated by the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee of social welfare ministry, Dr. Mozammel Hossain MP.

Even though there will be cash rewards of different denominations for individual competitors, the cyclists will compete under eight teams: Bangladesh Army, Border Guard Bangladesh, Bangladesh Ansar, BJMC, Jail Police, Dinajpur District Sports Association, Bagerhat District Sports Association and Gopalganj District Sports Association.

From Gopalganj, the race will continue through to Tungipara on the following day before a rest day will be followed by the final round -- a seven-lap event -- at Hatirjheel in Dhaka on December 23.

The winner will be awarded Tk 300,000 while the runner-up and the third-place finisher will receive Tk 200,000 and Tk 100,000 respectively. There will be handsome rewards for each of the cyclists who will finish inside the top ten.