Tour de Langkawi

Tour de Langkawi

Race details
Date	Late January or early February
Region	Peninsular Malaysia
English name	Tour of Langkawi
Local name(s)	Tour de Langkawi
Discipline	Road
Competition	UCI Asia Tour 2.HC
Type	Stage race
History
First edition	1996
Editions	14 (as of 2009)
First winner	Damian McDonald (AUS)
Most wins	Paolo Lanfranchi (ITA) (2 wins)
Most recent	José Serpa (COL)

The Tour de Langkawi is an annual cycling race which is held in Malaysia since 1996. The name of the event comes from the starting point of the first few editions, in Langkawi, Kedah, although some later editions did not include Langkawi in the race at all. The race is part of the UCI Asia Tour.

Four jerseys are contested during the race, although in history the jersey colours changed all the time to suit the sponsor, they are general leader; sprint winner; king of the mountains and best Asian rider. In addition, there are two team titles to honour the best team and also the best Asian team.

The tour is the biggest cycling event in Asia, and it is the only one in Asia to have granted two hors-category.^[1] However, the latest edition of the tour was influenced by the failure to pay the prize money from organiser, lack of management and also some financial difficulties.

History

The race

Tour de Langkawi participants passing through Kuala Selangor

The race was formed based by the idea of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, along with Wan Lokman and also the First Cartel, the race was successfully held for the first time in 1996.^[2][3] For the first few years, the tour always started from Langkawi, however it is not lately. The tour also visited in Sabah and Sarawak in 1997, however poor cargo service, led to a long delays by several teams to getting the stuff and riders, force organisers to cancelled second stage of the tour.^[4] Since then, the race never visited there again.

Several incidents spiced up the race in history, the race was cancelled twice due to heavy downpour in the final stage back in 2003 and 2006.^[5] During the first stage in 2004, police officials mistakenly opening the way for public vehicles onto the race track while the race was still ongoing to decide the winner of the first stage. After negotiations between the riders, they decided to neutralise the stage.^[6]

Throughout the history, only Paolo Lanfranchi able to emerge twice as overall winner. That was two stages that never missing from the calendar since 1998. Genting Highlands is the toughest climb in the tour, except in 2008, it was replaced by Fraser's Hill due to security reasons and set to comeback again in 2009.^[7][8] The tour ended with twelve laps criterium race in Dataran Merdeka.

Financial difficulties

In 2004, the then owner of the event, Wan Lokman Wan Ibrahim sold the entire Tour to Simon Donnellan (muslim name Imran Abdullah).^[9] The 2005 race was beset with financial problems, with some riders not receiving prize money and large contractors not being paid.^[10] Donnellan claimed the shortfall in funds was due to the change in government and the loss of two sponsors following the Asian tsunami one month before the event.^[11]

The 2007 tour was nearly cancelled, with the unsolved debt of RM10.2 million by First Cartel as the results of failure to pay the prize money.^[12] First Cartel took responsibility in this case but struggled to rectify the situation. The event was reported to have amassed debts of RM2.3 million for television rights, and also some RM470,394 in failing to pay the winners of this year's race. The company was able to honour some but not all of the debts. It was reported that government sorted down the debt to enable the tour continue to held, as UCI set the deadline.^[13] Reports then indicated that the event had become the victim of a power struggle within the Malaysian National Cycling Federation which has led to bitter and false claims being made in the Malaysian Press, particularly the New Straits Times. The Malaysian government was reported to be unhappy with the feud and insisted that it be resolved in the interests of the future of the event.^[14] The tour get the green light to go ahead before the September 1, 2006 UCI deadline.^[15]

In late 2006 the Malaysian government resolved some of the outstanding debts in order to preserve the future of the event. Responsibility for the running of the race was given to the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF). Donnellan is no further interest in the race after signing an agreement with both the Malaysian Government and MNCF on 27 January 2007 whereby the latter settle all remaining creditors and take over the running of the event. All creditors have since been settled although there continues to be some dispute over the ownership of the event's name.

The 2009 race now looks to be in some jeopardy following the Governments decision to award a financial grant of only RM7.5 million as compared to the RM25.5 million provided in 2007 and RM22 million in 2008. As a result, the MNCF are looking at various cost-saving measures including merging with the Jelajah Malaysia event and reducing the length of LTdL from ten days to seven.^[16]

Past winners

Rider Team 1996 McDonald, DamianDamian McDonald (AUS) Giant–AIS 1997 Scinto, LucaLuca Scinto (ITA) MG Maglificio – Technogym 1998 Missaglia, GabrieleGabriele Missaglia (ITA) Mapei–Bricobi 1999 Lanfranchi, PaoloPaolo Lanfranchi (ITA) Mapei – Quick Step 2000 Horner, ChrisChris Horner (USA) Mercury Cycling Team 2001 Lanfranchi, PaoloPaolo Lanfranchi (ITA) Mapei – Quick Step 2002 Muñoz, Hernán DaríoHernán Darío Muñoz (COL) Colombia – Selle Italia 2003 Danielson, TomTom Danielson (USA) Saturn Cycling Team 2004 Gonzalez, FreddyFreddy González (COL) Colombia – Selle Italia 2005 Cox, RyanRyan Cox (RSA) Barloworld 2006 George, DavidDavid George (RSA) South Africa 2007 Charteau, AnthonyAnthony Charteau (FRA) Crédit Agricole 2008 Ivanov, RuslanRuslan Ivanov (MDA) Diquigiovanni–Androni 2009 Serpa, JoseJosé Serpa (COL) Diquigiovanni–Androni

References

External links

• Official website