Malaysia’s history of hosting road cycling tours has been plagued with embarrassing issues, including race cancellations and removal from the UCI road cycling calendar due to outstanding payments owed to teams. In response to these recurring problems, the Malaysia National Cycling Federation (MNCF) vice-president, Datuk Amarjit Singh Gill, has called for tighter measures when selecting race organizers in the future.
Amarjit emphasized the importance of vetting and assessing the track records of potential race organizers before awarding them the rights to host events. To prevent such issues from happening again, he suggested making bank guarantees a prerequisite for event organizers to ensure all financial obligations are met in any situation.
The recent removal of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) from the UCI calendar due to unpaid appearance fees and flight ticket reimbursements highlighted the urgency of addressing these matters. However, the race has since been reinstated in the calendar after Human Voyage Sdn Bhd, the previous organizers, made the necessary payments.
Amarjit, who also serves as a UCI management committee member, expressed relief over the reinstatement, as it safeguards Malaysia’s reputation in the cycling world. He urged the government to consider the federation’s advice seriously when selecting event organizers, particularly when public funds are involved.
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Minister of Youth and Sports, Hannah Yeoh, also expressed relief over LTdL’s reinstatement and called for collaborative efforts to secure sponsors for this year’s tour, organized by the National Sports Council (NSC).
LTdL is a UCI ProSeries level event, requiring the participation of at least three WorldTeam.
