Tour de Langkawi

Infobox Cycling race
name = Tour de Langkawi
current_event =


date = Late-January, early-February
region = Peninsular Malaysia
english = Tour of Langkawi
localnames = Tour de Langkawi
nickname =
discipline = Road
competition = UCI Asia Tour 2.1
type = Stage race
organiser =
director =
first = 1996
number = 13 (as of 2008)
last =
firstwinner = flagicon|AUS Damian McDonald
mostwins = flagicon|ITA Paolo Lanfranchi (2)
mostrecent = flagicon|MDA Ruslan IvanovThe Tour de Langkawi (French for "Tour of Langkawi") is an annual cycling race which is held in Malaysia. 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.

History

The race was created by former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad. It was held for the first time in 1996 with twelve stages and a prologue stage where the classification and time do not count. However, under the UCI's request, the tour was trimmed to ten stages starting with the 2002 tour.

There have been two incidents that caused stage cancellation. First it occurred in the first stage of the 2004 edition with 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.

The final stage of the 2006 competition was cancelled with ten laps remaining due to heavy rain. Because of deteriorating road conditions, the race organisers decided to abandon the stage and declared Angel Vallejo as winner because he was leading at the time of the cancellation.

Famous stages

Genting Highlands and Dataran Merdeka are the two most famous stages.

Genting Highlands is a mountain stage with the toughest stages of the tour, where riders need a lot of stamina for the last five kilometres of the climb. In the 2008 event, this stage was replaced by a leg from Temerloh to Fraser’s Hill. [cite web|url=http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2008/1/23/sports/20090641&sec=sports |title=No Genting stage for this year’s Tour of Langkawi |accessdate=2008-01-24]

Dataran Merdeka is a circuit race stage in Kuala Lumpur, and the final stage of the tour. However, the winner of the tour is usually decided before this stage begins.

Jersey colours

Throughout its race history, varying colours of jerseys have been awarded to the current leader and overall winner of several of the race's classifications.

;General Classification:"Yellow Jersey", which is fashioned after the maillot jaune worn by the overall leader and final winner in the Tour de France, despite the fact that the sponsoring company is Telekom Malaysia, which does not have yellow in its logo or marketing. However, 2006 marked the end of Telekom Malaysia as tile sponsor since 2001, Proton came as replacement as jersey sponsor, while the traditional color is not change, the jersey also adding blue color as stripe to match the logo.

;Mountains Classification:"White with Red Polka Dot Jersey", which is based upon the leader of the King of the Mountains in the Tour de France and selected by its sponsor, the Genting Group.

;Sprint Classification:"Blue Jersey", which is sponsored by Proton. Prior to 2004, Petronas sponsored the jersey as the "Green Jersey" but dropped its sponsorship when the stage race was branded as "TM Le Tour de Langkawi". But 2007 marked the comeback of Petronas as the jersey sponsor, and it armend to green jersey again.

;Best Asian Rider:"Blue and White" starting in 2007 and sponsored by Telekom Malaysia (the former title sponsor). Previous colors included the 2006 version of "white, blue and red jersey" sponsored by the Tourism Board of Malaysia and prior to that it was the "blue and red jersey" sponsored by Malaysian Airlines.

Previous winners

General (Overall winner)

Best Asian riders

Financial difficulties

In 2004, the then owner of the event, Datuk Wan Lokman Dato Wan Ibrahim (a cousin of former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad) sold the entire Tour to Simon Donnellan (aka Imran Abdullah). The 2005 race was beset with financial problems, with some riders not receiving prize money and large contractors not being paid. 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. [cite web|url=http://www.velonews.com/article/11581/nearly-losing-langkawi-a-conversation-with-simon-donnellan |title=Nearly losing Langkawi: A conversation with Simon Donnellan |accessdate=2007-02-02]

With this dark cloud hanging over it and impending legal action, the 2006 race was run on a smaller scale. There were allegations of fraud and mismanagement, but the accusers failed to produce any evidence of misappropriation, apart from pointing to the lack of funds for creditors.

Because of the difficulties, the 2007 edition was in doubt for a period until it was cleared by the UCI. Several teams reported they had not received part or all of their prize money. The South Africa team insisted that they only received for 2005 edition prize money and were still owed for the 2006 edition. [cite web|url=http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Wednesday/Sport/20060816080933/Article/index_html Cycling/Ltdl |title=Fiasco: South Africans may stay away |accessdate=2006-08-21]

Several other teams were also in the same position such as Barloworld, American Pro Continental Team Navigators Insurance, Wismilak, Iran, Great Britain, Ireland and Japan. [cite web|url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=features/2005/langkawi_prizemoney |title=Loose ends from Langkawi] [cite web|url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2006/feb06/langkawi06/news/?id=/news/2006/feb06/feb12news2 |title=Japanese team counts on promise of payment]

First Cartel (M) Sdn Bhd, the organiser, 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.

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. [cite web|url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=features/2006/langkawi_future |title=Government decision due on organisation of Tour de Langkawi]

UCI put September 1, 2006 as deadline to solve out the problem, but two days before the end of deadline, the announcement made as the 2007 edition go ahead. [cite web|url=http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2006/8/25/sports/20060825181215&sec=sports |title=Le Tour de Langkawi will go on, says Tourism Minister |accessdate=2006-09-02] This is in spite of the MNCF poor record at organising events such as the Jelajah Malaysia. [cite web|url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/sep06/sep01news3 |title=Tour de Langkawi saved - almost |accessdate=2006-09-02]

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). In the week preceding the 2007 race, the former organizers First Cartel were legally wound up in the Malaysian High Court by a hotel claiming payment. This left creditors in an uncertain position. Donnellan, MD of First Cartel, now has no further interest in the race after signing an agreement with both the Malaysian Government and MNCF on 27th January 2007 whereby they settle the remaining creditors and take over the running of the event, although there continues some dispute over the ownership of the event's name.

The Events Group, which was involved from 1998 to 2005, was bought back to help run the race for 2007 and 2008 to help maintain the high standard of organisation that has been achieved. Alan Rushton from The Events Group was employed under a directive from the UCI to involve personnel from the previously successful editions.

References

External links

* [http://tourdelangkawi.blogspot.com/ Le Tour de Langkawi (LTDL)]
* [http://www.ltdl.com.my Official Website 2007]
* [http://tmltdl.fotopic.net TMLTdL 2006 complete photo collection]