Le Tour de Langkawi
Le Tour de LangkawiHistory
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.
The race was created by former Malaysian Prime Ministers 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.
In 2004, the existing owner of this race, 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. With this dark cloud hanging over it and impending legal action, the 2006 race was run on a smaller scale. There have been allegations of fraud and mismanagement, but the accusers have, after many months, still failed to produce any evidence that this is the case apart from pointing to the lack of funds for creditors. 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. This leaves the existing creditors in an uncertain position. Simon , MD of First Cartel, now has no further interest in the race, although there remains some dispute over the ownership of the event's name. Simon Donnellan was also banned from being within 100m metres of the 2007 race, however he was regularly spotted on the race acting as if nothing had happened.
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.
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