KUALA LUMPUR: A total of three teams that competed at the Tour de France, which concluded yesterday, will be riding at the Petronas Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) on Sep 29-Oct 6.
The National Sports Council (NSC), who are the LTdL organisers, today announced the full list of 22 teams that will compete in the UCI ProSeries race this season.
Among them includes three WorldTeams – Astana Qazaqstan, EF Education-Easypost (United States) and DSM Firmenich PostNL (Netherlands) – who all featured in France.
A total of seven UCI ProTeams have also been named – Burgos BH, Equipo Kern Pharma, Euskaltel-Euskadi (all Spain), VF Group Bardiani CSF Faizane, Corratec Vini Fantini, Team Polti Kometa (all Italy) and Tudor Pro Cycling (Switzerland).
The rest of the field is made up of nine UCI continental sides, including Terengganu Cycling Team and Malaysia Pro Cycling, as well as three national teams including Malaysia.
NSC director general Abdul Rashid Yaakub said the inclusion of the WorldTeam and ProTeam sides means that LTdL has met the participation requirement set by the UCI (world body) for ProSeries races held outside of Europe.
Only two WorldTeams competed in the race last year.
“These WorldTeams achieved podium finishes (stage) in the Tour de France this year while Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost) briefly took the leader’s jersey after the third stage,” said Rashid during a press conference in Bukit Jalil today.
“Five of the seven ProTeams are also ‘grand tour’ teams as they had had received invites to race in Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana this year.”
Meanwhile, LTdL chief operating officer Emir Abd Jalal disclosed that the route for stage four of the race, which features a climb up Fraser’s Hill could be tweaked.
“We originally planned to have a long descending section after the The Gap, however, we have been advised by UCI to change it,” said Emir.
“This is because there are some concerns after the crashes that happened in recent races in Europe.
“We have already identified a new section for the route and will await UCI’s approval before we announce it.”
Norwegian rider Andre Drege lost his life after crashing during a descent in stage four of the Tour of Austria earlier this month.
Last month, two mass crashes occurred during a downhill section during stage five of the Criterium du Dauphine in France.
– NST
