22 Sep. 2015 – Elias ABOU RACHID, the Lebanese Road and Mountain bike champion, just arrived to the United States, Virginia, to participate in the World Road Bike championship. His race will be held this Friday, September 25.
This is the second time that a Lebanese qualify to participate in the World Championship, the first time was back in 2013. This time, Lebanon qualified after finishing 6th in the Asian Rankings!
Elias ABOU RACHID’s target is to qualify for the Summer Olympic Games Rio 2016 in Mountain bike because it is an individual event while the road bike is mainly a team sport where cyclists work as a group to reach the finish line. In this kind of events, when only one cyclist is taking the road, he has to work alone, without the support of the team.
Check out our Road to Rio Blog!
That’s what Elias will be facing this week because he was the only one who is participating in the World Championship. We hope that the jet lag will not affect his performance! It would be great if we see a Lebanese team and not only one cyclist at future World Road Bike championships!
The president of the Lebanese Cycling Federation, Vatche ZADORIAN, left to the United States before Elias, to attend international meetings. Abdo NADER, the general secretary of the federation, was also about to attend the meetings, but he had a bike accident few days before, where he broke his hip and had to do a surgery! We wish him a fast recovery!
Nazrat HABIBIAN, member of the Lebanese Cycling Federation, may replace Abdo NADER in this mission.
Elias ABOU RACHID who is only 20 years old, will participate in the under 23 category and will have to cross 162.20 km in Richmond, with the participation of more than 250 cyclists from 55 different countries.
We should note that the Lebanese Olympic Committee bought Elias the ticket for the US. Elias is now the best cyclist in Lebanon and is pursuing his dream of qualifying to the Olympics. This participation will certainly be very beneficial for the Lebanese athlete!
All the best Elias!
The post Elias ABOU RACHID to the World Road Bike Championship! appeared first on Sports 961.
