KUALA LUMPUR: Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) defending champions Team Sapura Cycling have been barred from competing in the race, which begins on Tuesday, by the world body UCI.
This is due to the Malaysian team being late in making a payment of 3,500 swiss francs (RM16,304) to UCI as part of their commitment towards the UCI's enhanced anti-doping programme.
Sapura had made the payment in early September - which was 28 days past the deadline - after being prompted to do so by president of the commissaire panel for LTdL.
Teams need to complete an acknowledgement form - which Sapura had done in November last year - as well as make payment at least two months before competing in an UCI ProSeries event.
This is, however, not required for teams competing in lower category races such as UCI2.1 and UCI2.2 events.
The Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) and Sapura had appealed, but both were rejected by UCI.
Three other foreign teams, that were supposed to compete in LTdL this year, have also been forced to sit out the race due to the same issue.
Sapura team principal Sayuti Zahit admitted that it was an oversight on their part.
"We had delayed making the payment as there was uncertainty on whether we would be competing in any UCI ProSeries races this year due to the pandemic," said Sayuti today.
"This year we have only raced in one UCI2.1 race (Tour of Thailand) so far, while the rest have been domestic races such as the National Championships and the Malaysia Games.
"We did not want to risk paying the fee but then end up not competing in any ProSeries races as that would be a waste. We are on a limited budget and need to manage our finances as best possible.
"We, however, thought that we still had a chance to compete as we were asked to make the payment by the president of the commissaire panel of LTdL last month.
"We admit that it was a mistake on our part as we missed the deadline.
"We, however, have always given our full commitment towards anti-doping policies and have never missed any doping tests."
Sayuti said the entire Sapura squad are disappointed to miss out on the race but are determined to bounce back strongly.
"The team are feeling a little down at the moment, they have been training and looking forward to racing at LTdL, especially as we are the defending champions," added Sayuti.
"We would like to apologise to our sponsors as well as all our fans who have been waiting to support us at LTdL.
"We consider this like falling off our bikes, we will get back up and come back stronger."
Sapura had won the yellow jersey through their Italian rider Danilo Celano, and also the overall team general classification title at LTdL in 2020.