KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's famous cycling race, Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) has been kicked out of this year's UCI international calendar.
And this has raised concerns over whether the iconic race will even be held at all.
LTdL, which comes under the National Sports Council, is scheduled for Sept 23-30.
MNCF president Datuk Abu Samah Wahab had said earlier this month that he feared LTdL would be removed from the UCI calendar next year due to unpaid money to teams from last year's event for appearance fees and flight tickets.
But it is happening sooner than expected. The world body is acting against LTdL this year.
According to a source, UCI took the drastic action following complaints from the teams.
"LTdL is set to be removed from the calendar due to the debts. Till now there are no updates on whether any payment has been made," said the source.
Meanwhile, LTdL Chief Operations Officer Emir Abdul Jalal refused to comment on the issue.
Earlier this month, MNCF revealed that five teams had complained to UCI after they were not paid appearance fees as promised by the previous LTdL organiser. Human Voyage organised the race in 2019, 2020 and 2022.
It is understood that the payment issue has made it difficult for LTdL to get the participation of WorldTeams for this year.
Timesport was unable to contact Human Voyage today for comments on the matter.