AFTER the completion of its 22nd edition, Malaysia’s biggest annual cycling event, Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) could face tough times ahead. LTdL chief executive officer Emir Abdul Jalal talks to Timesport of the speculation and his plans.
Question: In its 22nd edition, many have said Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) is losing its spark due to lesser known names and limited funding and sponsors, what do you make of this?
Answer: Everybody knows the world’s economy isn’t great and Malaysia is one of those countries affected, with budget cuts and fewer professional and continental teams this year.
Previously, we had six pro tour teams but there was only one this year with six continental teams but it did not dampen the excitement of the race.
The LTdL challenge has always meant to be for the best Asian rider and whoever wins it will have bragging rights for the year, so there’s no issue regarding the popularity of the race because it’s always been popular in Asia. Eurosports has given us the opportunity to be in their calendar despite offering us the cheapest ever airtime cost but the LTdL viewership is bigger than the three Grand Tours (Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana) because we have the viewership of China, Indonesia.
The eyeball is actually much bigger than in Europe, that’s why Eurosports was counting on us with more than six million viewership worldwide. So, I don’t think the race is downgrading, it’s always moving up day in, day out for me.
What do you think was the factor that contributed to past successes of LTdL?
A: The main factor that contributed to past successes has always been the team from 1996 until now. Some of the contractors have been here since the first edition of LTdL and most of them do it for the passion and commitment towards the event despite the reduction in budget.
They’ve made huge sacrifices but they do it for the love of the race. I have the best team and most of our team have been exported to Korea, Taiwan and such doing TV production after being absorbed following their exposure at LTdL.
We even get the race commissaires to train here because it is still the most popular race in Asia.
As the man at the helm of “Asia’s Biggest Challenge”, is there anything you wish you did differently and why?
A: As the leader and the chief, the dream I always have is to upgrade the race to a World Tour level and this is the dream of Malaysians.
However, this can only happen after our riders have upgraded themselves to pro-continental level because if I have a World Tour event here, none of our riders can compete because this is the regulation as you can only compete in the world event in the pro-continental category.
Many big events annually held in Malaysia are being slowly written off. Is there any fear of this happening to LTdL and why?
A: I’ve got no fear. If the LTdL is being closed down by the government, this is their decision but for me, LTdL is so important for the nation itself because one of the most important parts of the event is nation profiling.
Malaysia has been given negative perception all over in terms of economic, politics and a lot of other things but LTdL has shown to the world, through eight hours of broadcast, that our nation is still strong in all aspects. Events such as the Formula One, MotoGP, Monsoon Cup, they can’t have this type of nation profiling because we have millions of Malaysians supporting this event and we have shown them that we are still strong.
I represented Malaysia at the Asia Business Sports Conference in 2012. I spoke to the audience and told them that year the cycling industry is a US$50 million (RM225 million) industry and in three years’ time, it would be a billion dollar industry and it helps through events like LTdL.
There’s always been a special category for the best Malaysian rider and such but how does this help our local cyclists grow and what would it take for them to get to the Grand Tour level such as professionals like Mark Cavendish?
A: I would like more and more riders competing and if you ask me to upgrade to a World Tour event, I won’t have the opportunity to give way to local riders such as TSG (Terengganu Cycling Team), Sapura Cycling Team. Plus we had a rider with Infinite AIS Cycling Team (Afiq Huznie Othman), because they come here to compete and if they win the Asian Rider Overall category, they have bragging rights.
Through that they will have the mindset that one day they will win this LTdL and for me, this is the best platform to develop them because they are right here on lower events and they won’t have opportunities like this to compete against the best climbers in the world.
Zamri Salleh (TSG) won third in Pantai Remis and behind him there were more than 10 top 10 sprinters so that shows that we are strong. Now Zamri will have full confidence going into the Sea Games.
What are the plans for LTdL and where do you go from here?
A: The future plan for LTdL, just like this year, is we are trying our best to be associated with international brands.
This year we had BMW (Malaysia Sdn Bhd). We have talks with Qatar Airways and a few other international brands for next year.
The moment we associate with BMW, one of the best automotive brands in the world, they brand us worldwide and to be associated with another such as Qatar Airways for the next edition, LTdL will be just like Barcelona.
This is my dream for the coming years because the whole idea of the Sports Ministry to privatise the whole thing is to lessen their cost because from next year onwards, they don’t have to fund us anymore.
We can find our own funding through association with international brands and after we have all that, we can go to World Tour anytime.