Le Tour de Langkawi
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 Le Tour de Langkawi participants passing through Kuala Selangor. |
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|---|---|
| Le Tour de Langkawi | |
| Local name | Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) |
| Region | Peninsular Malaysia |
| Date | Late January and/or early February |
| Type | Stage Race |
| Managing Director | Alan Rushton |
| History | |
| First edition | 1996 |
| Number of editions | 11 (as of 2006) |
| First winner | Damian McDonald (Australia) |
| Most wins | Paolo Lanfranchi (Italy), 2 times |
| Latest winner | David George (South Africa), 2006 |
| Most career Yellow Jerseys | ? |
| Most career stage wins | ? |
Le 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.
Although this tour is not awarded Protour points, some professional bike teams cite this tour as a major pre-season warm-up before going back to Europe.
Contents |
[edit] History
The race was created by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin 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.
In 2004, the existing owner of this race, Datuk Wan Lokman Data Wan Ibrahim, a cousin of former Prime Minister, Tun Mahtir 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. With this dark cloud hanging over it and impending legal action, the 2006 race was run on a smaller scale (see Fiasco). There have been allegations of fraud and mismanagement, but the accusers have failed to produce any evidence that this is the case apart from pointing to the curious lack of funds for creditors. The Malaysian government has had access to the books of the event and has not found any cause for action against the directors. Simon Donnellan continues to work on despite near personal bankruptcy trying to ensure that all debts will eventually be paid.
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.
In the final stage of the 2006 competition, the final stage was cancelled with ten laps remaining due to heavy rain. Because of road conditions deteriorating, the race organisers decided to abandon the stage and declared Angel Dominguez as winner because he was leading at the time of the cancellation.
| Year | Winner | Team |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 |  Damian McDonald |
Giant-AIS |
| 1997 |  Luca Scinto |
MG-Technogym |
| 1998 | Gabrielle Missaglia |
Mapei-Bricobi |
| 1999 | Paolo Lanfranchi |
Mapei-Quickstep |
| 2000 |  Chris Horner |
Mercury Cycling Team |
| 2001 | Paolo Lanfranchi |
Mapei-Quickstep |
| 2002 |  Hernan Dario Munoz |
Colombia Selle-Italia |
| 2003 | Tom Danielson |
Saturn Cycling Team |
| 2004 | Freddy Gonzalez |
Colombia Selle-Italia |
| 2005 |  Ryan Cox |
Barloworld |
| 2006 | David George |
South Africa |
[edit] Famous Stages
The tour is held across Peninsular Malaysia and does not include the islands. In 1997, the tour began across the sea in Sabah and continued through neighbouring Sarawak before moving to the mainland. Trouble with flights to the island caused complaints from the riders and forced the unofficialization of the second and third stages. [1]
Genting Highlands and Dataran Merdeka of Kuala Lumpur are the two famous stages that have appeared in every edition of the race. Genting Highlands is a famous mountain stage appeared in the penultimate stage of the race before unpredictably started in 2005, the toughest stages of the tour, rider need a lot of stamina in the last five kilometres of the climb.
For Dataran Merdeka it appeared in the final stage of the tour as a circuit race. Mostly the jersey will not decide in this stage. It just a complete schedule stage.
[edit] 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.
- 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.
- Best Asian Rider - White, Blue and Red Jersey since 2006 when the Tourism Board of Malaysia became the sponsor after financial problems with Malaysian Airlines, which sponsored the classification as the Blue and Red Jersey.
[edit] Difficulties
Because of the difficulties, the 2007 Le Tour de Langkawi remains in doubt. Several teams reported they had not received their prize money or some of the prize money. The South Africa team already insists that they only received for 2005 edition prize money and still owed for the 2006 edition, prepare for the event. [2] This issue has been raised for a year but still unsolved, although they are several other teams also in the same issue like Barloworld, American Pro Continental Team Navigators Insurance, Wismilak, Iran, Great Britain, Ireland [3] and Japan. [4]
First Cartel (M) Sdn Bhd, the organiser, is responsible in this case and has struggled to rectify the situation while trying to repay a loan taken out to pay off the previous owner, Datuk Wan Lokman. The event is 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.[citation needed] The company has been able to to honour some but not all of the debts.
Unverified reports suggested that First Cartel (M) Sdn Bhd has been dropped organising the tour and the role taken over by the Youth and Sports Ministry, which prepared some RM2.9 million to bail out of this issue. [5]
The UCI had set September 1, 2006 as a deadline for the organiser to settle its debts for the 2005 and 2006 edition, otherwise the tour will set to miss for the first time since it began in 1996. [6]
More recent reports indicate that the event is 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 is reported to be unhappy with the feud and to be insisting that it be resolved in the interests of the future of the event.[7]
[edit] Saved
On August 28, 2006, the Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor annouced 2007 tour will go on [8] after Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) received a cheque from the country's Sports Ministry to cover the debt. This is in spite of the the MNCF poor record at organising events such as the Jelajah Malaysia.[9]
A new company, The Events Group have been bought in to run the race for 2007, this is to bring the race back to its international profile before its transfer of ownership. Alan Rushton from The Events Group has been employed under a directive from the UCI to involve personnel from the pre Simon Donnellan era. Donnellan will continue to be involved with the race to try and honour some of the outstanding debts.[10]
[edit] 2007 event
The 2007 cycling events is set to be held from February 2, 2007 to February 11, 2007 and will fully organising by Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) with the cooperation of The Events Group of London. Alan Rushton have been appointed as event director and technical consultant. Official website is at http://www.ltdl.com.my[11]
[edit] References
- ^ 3 Pro Teams Balk at Logistics in Asian Bike Race.
- ^ Cycling/Ltdl Fiasco: South Africans may stay away. Retrieved August 21, 2006.
- ^ Loose ends from Langkawi
- ^ Japanese team counts on promise of payment
- ^ First Cartel Dropped as Organiser Of LTdL. Retrieved August 21, 2006.
- ^ Youth And Sports Ministry To Help First Cartel Solve LTdL Problems. Retrieved August 21, 2006.
- ^ http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=features/2006/langkawi_future
- ^ Le Tour de Langkawi will go on, says Tourism Minister Retrieved September 2, 2006
- ^ Tour de Langkawi saved - almost Retrieved September 2, 2006.
- ^ Cycling News November 1, 2006.
- ^ Le Tour de Langkawi 2007
[edit] External links
- Official Website 2007
- TMLTdL 2006 complete photo collection
- Photo Gallery of The 2006 Edition of The Tour
| Le Tour de Langkawi |
|---|
| 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 |
