Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Team Sapura Cycling have pared down their squad in anticipation of a "slow year" due to the limited number of major races.
Dutchman Roy Eefting has left Sapura to join Belarus-based team Ferei-CCN, Australian Marcus Culey has joined Team Ukyo (Japan), Romanian Serghei Tvetcov has signed with Wildlife Generation Pro Cycling (the United States) while Nur Aiman Zariff has rejoined Terengganu Cycling Team (TSG).
Tvetcov and Eefting had only signed up for Sapura last year while Culey was with the team since 2019. Aiman joined Sapura from TSG in 2018.
Sapura have not signed any new riders so far but team principal Sayuti Zahit hinted that he could dip into the transfer market later this year.
"We have allowed the riders, who had received offers, to leave but have maintained all the other riders from the team last year," said Sayuti.
"There is not much racing going on currently, so we do not need to have such a big squad at the moment. This will help lower our expenses.
"We can always sign more riders when there are more suitable races for us to compete in later this year.
"We do not have to worry about any transfer windows and there are also a lot of riders available on the market now due to the pandemic."
With sponsorship money drying up across the globe, many teams have downsized, thus leaving riders with limited options as far as employment is concerned.
Sayuti added that he does not expect the team to do much racing in the first quarter of the year due to the pandemic.
"At the moment a lot of countries have gone into lockdown again which makes travelling difficult," said Sayuti.
"Our initial plans were to race in Turkey but now the Tour of Antalya, scheduled for next month, has been cancelled while many are also expecting the Tour of Turkey (April) to also be cancelled.
"There are a number of one-day races still on in Turkey but we do not feel that it would be worthwhile for us to only compete in those as it would cost us roughly RM200,000 to RM300,000 to take the squad there (Turkey), not to mention the hassle involved in travelling during these difficult times.
"We also had plans to race in France but the situation is similar there.
"Thus our plan now is to just remain focused on training for the first quarter of the year and hopefully start to race again from April onwards once vaccines are available."
Sapura have retained Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) yellow jersey winner Danilo Celano along with fellow Italian Pierpaolo Ficara, while Irishman Jesse Ewart, Ahmet Orken (Turkey) and Christian Raileanu (Moldova) complete their foreign rider lineup.
Local riders Zawawi Azman, Nur Aiman Rosli, Muhsin Misbah, Akmal Hakim Zakaria, Shaiful Adlan Shukri, Saari Amri Abd Rasim and Hakimi Ajis have also been retained.
LTdL, which usually runs in February, has also been cancelled.