Not yet 5am, a small pack of women savor the peace six mornings a week, before the men appear on Kabul's streets to hurl insults at them for breaking the gender barrier of acceptable female activity.

"These girls are challenging a big taboo in Afghanistan, riding a bicycle," said Shannon Galpin, an American who is helping to train the team and, through her tiny charity Mountain2Mountain, has drummed up hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of equipment, sponsorship, travel money and publicity.

Their coach, Abdul Sadiq, who, for years was the country's only professional cyclist, has been trying to get Afghan women on bikes for decades.

(READ the story, w/ photos, from the Guardian)

Photo via Mountain2Mountain by Deni Bechard on instagram