Asian and European teams in a balance
08/02/2009

KUALA LUMPUR, 8 February: A balance participation of riders from Asia and Europe is expected to heat up the most prestigious race in Asia, Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) 2009 which will be in full gear tomorrow.

Executive Chairman LTdL, Tuan Haji Abu Samah Hj Abd Wahab said that all 20 teams which will competing against each other tomorrow are already in Malaysia.

"With 120 from 35 countries of five continents, the Hors status race will feature a competitive, neck-to-neck race from the riders.

"We expect the race to be an international level with more than 800 million viewers all over the world," katanya.

He hopes that the participation of 15 local riders in the 14th edition of LTdL will be the benchmark in order to establish more world-class riders.

Four Pro Tour teams that participate in the race are BBOX Bouygues Telecom from France, AG2R La Mondiale (France), Garmin Slipstream (USA) and Fuji-Servetto (Spain).

As for Pro Continental teams; CSF Group-Navigare (Ireland), Diquigivanni-Androni (Venezuela), ISD (Itali), Cervelo Test Team (Switzerland) and Vorarlberg-Corratec (Austria).

Continental teams lined up are Seoul Cycling (Korea), EQA-Meitan Hompo-Graphite Design (Jepun), MNCF Cycling (Malaysia) and Doha (Qatar).

In this edition, six national teams that will be competing are Malaysia, Australia, South Afrika, China, Iran and Kazakhstan.

In the Team Presentation Ceremony held at the Hotel Palace of Golden Horses today, Chief Operating Officer LTdL Datuk Naim Mohamad and the representatives from all the sponsors are present.

With the theme Sports Tourism towards One Malaysia, the 14th edition of LTdL will feature a seven-stage race starting from the national administration centre in Putrajaya and will end in a criterium stage at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur.

This time around, LTdL covers a total distance of 1031.7 km starting from Putrajaya to Senawang (Stage 1) and then from Senawang to Melaka (stage 2), Melaka (stage 3) Melaka to Bandar Baru Bangi (stage 4), Petaling Jaya to Genting Highlands (stage 5), Batang Kali to Shah Alam (stage 6) and Criterium Kuala Lumpur (stage 7).

The Hors category race is organized by MNCF with the support of the Malaysian Government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports and fully endorsed by Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and the Asian Cycling Confederation (ACC).

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