NUR – Tour De Langkawi 2018
18th March 2018
“Langkawi has been an island resort but at the same time, we want to see the island becoming a recreational centre with focus on cycling and I am confident we would be able to train more riders to become world champions,”
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad
Commenting on the performance of national riders at 2019 LTdL, Dr Mahathir said based on the results achieved, Malaysians are beginning to excel in cycling. “Initially there were no local teams at all but after training for some time, they could even succeed in winning the race. Today, we see a Malaysian team (Team Sapura Cycling) clinching the yellow jersey, which means Malaysians have the talent and we hope the cycling sport would be enjoyed by more Malaysians,” he said. The Tour de Langkawi was conceived by Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad to put Malaysia “on the world sporting and tourism map”. The first race was held in 1996. It was Asia’s richest bicycle race with total prize money of RM1.1 million. In 2018 the Tour’s first leg took place at Kulim and NUR is proud to be a part of this important international sporting event and an annual Malaysian highlight. Andrea Guardini picked up where he left off at the Tour de Langkawi, winning stage 1 of the race in Kulim. Guardini missed the 2017 edition of the race but has now won three straight stages having closed out his last appearance with back-to-back wins. “It was a confusing sprint in the finale. It was hard to be in the first positions but with my teammates, we played our cards really well and didn’t take the front of the race, ” Guardini said of the sprint.