Cyclists' NIS trip was pre-planned, says CFI

NEW DELHI: A day after it was reported that traffic woes and the spreading epidemic of dengue in the capital has scared 27 Indian cyclists away and that they are returning to NIS Patiala for training, the Cycling Federation of India (CFI) said on Thursday that going back has nothing to do with the Delhi traffic or dengue and was pre-planned.
"I didn’t say anything like that (that the cyclists are scared). It (going back to NIS) was pre-planned by our foreign coach. There are different types of events in cycling (long and short distance). We had planned a two-week retreat to NIS for long distance cycling training. Our cyclists feel comfortable training there for long distance. Traffic was a concern here but not the reason to go back. The cyclists will be back in Delhi on Sept 23," said VN Singh, asst secretary, CFI.
Coach Chayan Chowdhury corroborated CFI’s view and said that the unavailability of clear roads on the Noida Expressway even during early mornings made them to go back to NIS for long distance training.
"We were in Delhi for the final trials. Training for road races has to be done on empty roads at a stretch of 4-5 hours. That was not possible in Delhi because even if we started at 6 am, the Noida Expressway would be traffic-heavy by 8 am. So we decided to train at NIS," he told TOI. The Indian challenge at the Games has already been plagued by the late arrival of world-class cycles and dengue, which affected five cyclists.