SEPANG: The Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) is disappointed with the organisers of the Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL), Human Voyage (M) Sdn Bhd which supposedly failed to lure the world’s professional tour teams to take part in the 24th edition of the race this year.
MNCF president Datuk Abu Samah Abdul Wahab said MNCF feared that the International Cycling Union (UCI) would not recognise LTdL as a race with a 2.0 Hors Class status due to the absence of professional tour teams this time round.
‘’Under UCI’s regulation, there must be at least one or two world class professional tour teams participating in the championship if it is to be recognised as a 2.0 Hors Class. But they were not listed in the media statement sent to MNCF.
‘’We are very sad at the absence of world professional tour teams. Looking at the current situation, LTdL appears to be like a 2.1 race and not Hors Class. It is up to UCI, we will just have to wait and see,’’ said Abu Samah.
He said this when met by reporters at a ceremony to introduce the Malaysian racers for LTdL at a hotel here earlier today (Wednesday).
Commenting further, Abu Samah claimed that prior to this, race organisers Human Voyage (M) Sdn Bhd had planned to bring six world professional tour teams to take part in LTdL this year, but it did not materialise.
‘’We don’t want UCI to drop the status of the race following the absence of the world’s professional tour teams this time,’’ said Abu Samah who also claimed that MNCF had just received a full list of the competing teams from the company yesterday (Tuesday).
For the record, in 2014, LTdL recorded the highest in terms of participation of world professional tour teams where there were six teams participating.
In the meantime, experienced racer Nik Mohd Azwan Zulkiflie, who will be spearheading the Malaysian challenge at this year’s LTdL, vowed to wrestle the white jersey which he had won in the third stage last year, hoping that the national squad can achieve a podium win as targeted by MNCF.
Nik Mohd Azwan, an experienced all rounder, is also confident that his combination with several young racers will be able to ensure that the national squad are able to get a positive result. Bernama