LE Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) organisers Human Voyage Sdn Bhd have already secured in excess of RM10 million in sponsorship for the race on Feb 6-15.
Human Voyage chief operating officer Shahaizereen A. Hamid said they remain open to accepting additional sponsorship in the lead up to the race, which will return to East Malaysia for the first time since 1997.
“We are grateful to have sponsors such as Petronas, Genting Malaysia Berhad and MMC,” said Shahaizereen.
“At the moment, we have already secured more than RM10 million in sponsorship but are still open (to accepting more support).
“The cost to organise LTdL this year is roughly RM18 million due to the logistics involved in bringing the event to Sabah and Sarawak.
“The Sports Ministry will be assisting us with roughly RM8 million.”
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) have rolled out a major revamp for road cycling this year, with many UCI 2.HC events and UCI 2.1 tours now being changed to ProSeries status.
LTdL, which was formerly a 2.HC tour, is now a ProSeries event. The ProSeries is the second tier of races after the WorldTour.
“LTdL has a three-year contract to host the race as a ProSeries event for 2020, 2021 and 2022, so we will still be a ProSeries event next year,” added Shahaizereen.
“There have been a lot of changes and everyone is aware of this. We will be evaluated over the three years.”
UCI have also changed the naming convention for teams this year. World Tour Teams are now known as WorldTeams while second-tier Pro Continental teams are now ProTeams.
Shahaizereen disclosed that South Africa-based NTT Pro Cycling are the only WorldTeam confirmed for LTdL so far.
“We are still negotiating with another two WorldTeams and are awaiting confirmation from them,” added Shahaizereen.
“The final closing date (for registration) is a day before the race starts, so there is still time.
“In addition to NNT, we have also confirmed five ProTeams for LTdL this year.”
WorldTeams may comprise up to 65 per cent of the field in a ProSeries event held outside of Europe with the rest comprising continental and national teams.
New Straits Times, 30 January 2020