Kazakhstan and Swiss teams the first to arrive for Le Tour de Langkawi
07/02/2009, The Star

THE participating teams and officials for the upcoming Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) will be calling the Palace of the Golden Horses in Seri Kembangan their temporary home.

They will be based at the hotel as a build-up to the opening stage on Monday followed by the fourth and fifth stages scheduled on Feb 12 and 13 respectively.

This season, 160 cyclists from 20 teams will be featuring in the tour covering a total distance of 1,031.7km over seven stages from Feb 9 to 15.

The hotel’s general manager, Ondre Lim, said they were delighted to keep the momentum going in hosting high profiled events.

“Although it is the first time we have been appointed as one of the official hotels for the most prestigious cycling event in the country, we have coped well to cater to the needs of the teams.

“It is a chance for us to showcase our warm Malaysian hospitality to the world with the facilities as well as the charming architecture that we have to offer here.

“We will ensure that our guests will have a good experience staying here,” he added.

And the scene of cyclists from different outfits zooming around has created a different ambience at the hotel as teams began to check in on Thursday.

The two early birds were pro continental team Cervelo Test Team from Switzerland and Kazakhstan national team.

Kazakhstan team manager Alexandr Nadobenko said they came early to acclimatise to the hot and humid weather after a two-week training stint in Kunming, China.

“This is their first race of the season for our under-23 team. It is going to be a challenging outing for the youngsters as they will be up against established teams. The climb up to Genting Highlands will be an interesting affair,” said Nadobenko, who also had the experience competing in the tour in 1997 and 1998 before retiring in 1998.

The strong field includes four pro teams - BBOX Bouygues (France), AG2r La Mondiale (France), Garmin Slipstream (USA) and Fuji-Servetto (Spain).

Four other pro continental sides are CSF Group-Navigare (Ireland), Diquiguiovanni-Androni (Vene-zuela), ISD (Italy) and Vorarlberg-Corratec (Austria).

Among the continental teams are Seoul Cycling (South Korea), EQA-Meitan Hompo-Graphite Design (Japan), MNCF Cycling Team (Malaysia), Le Tua Cycling Team (Malaysia) and Doha Team (Qatar).

Besides hosts Malaysia, other national teams in the fray are Australia, South Africa, China and Iran.

The hotel has allocated 360 of the 480 rooms to accommodate 600 guests, keeping a keen interest on the proceedings of the race.

In addition, workers in the hotel’s food and beverage department are also getting ready to keep up with the pace, dishing out high carbohydrate energy food to the cyclists.

Sous chef Muhammad Nasri Dorahim anticipates that potato salad is going to be a popular dish among the foreign guests.

“We have to provide them with a healthy and balanced diet. We will be offering between five and six variations of salad. The main dishes will be a combination of rice, pasta and potatoes served with meat and vegetables,” Nasri added.

Tomorrow, the participating teams will be introduced in a ceremony at the hotel’s East Garden.

“It is going to be a big carnival atmosphere at the open-air area.

“We will be adding a special touch to the occasion with an orchestra entertaining the guests,” Lim said.

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