LE Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) organiser, Human Voyage, is currently in talks with world tour teams for the race’s silver jubilee edition next year.
Human Voyage chief executive officer Datuk Ahmad Mustafa said LTdL’s change in dates to Feb 7-14 has made attracting the top teams a little easier.
“This year our race (dates) clashed with the spring classics in Europe, and that had made things very tough for us in terms of attracting world tour teams,” said Ahmad.
“For next year, we have talked to eight world tour teams, including Bahrain, UAE International, and we are also looking at a few teams such as Ineos and Astana.
“We are in the negotiation stage, so it is still early days.
“We are not worried about the pro continental and continental teams. They are calling us already and we will decide everything by the end of December, so by the new year we have the teams ready.”
Ahmad earlier this month disclosed that next year’s LTdL, which is set to enter Sabah and Sarawak for the first time since 1997, would cost no less than RM20 million to organise.
“We expect the biggest cost to be logistics with the race spanning both East and West Malaysia,” added Ahmad.