KUALA LUMPUR: In a bid to restore the race's reputation, Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) organiser National Sports Council (NSC) has decided to make several key changes to how they run the race beginning this year.
LTdL chief operating officer Emir Abdul Jalal said competing teams would be paid their appearance fees upfront instead of after the race, while their flight tickets would also be purchased by NSC on behalf of them.
LTdL will be held on Sep 23-30 across 11 states in Peninsular Malaysia, covering a total distance of 1,280km.
"To avoid previous issues from recurring, we have decided to change a few things this year," said Emir when contacted today.
"NSC will purchase the team's flight tickets for them. This way we do not have to go through the whole process of reimbursing the teams (for tickets).
"Once the tickets are issued to the teams, we will then pay the teams their appearance fees.
"This way we will have settled all payments, besides prize money, to the teams even before they turn a wheel in Malaysia.
"We hope this will help restore the team's confidence in the race and allow us to secure the participation of more big-name teams in future."
This year's LTdL was briefly removed from the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) calendar last month due to outstanding payments — appearance fees and reimbursement of flight tickets — owed to teams that had competed in last year's race when it was run by different organisers.
Payments have since been made and the race has been reinstated.
Emir disclosed that so far two UCI WorldTeams and seven ProTeams have confirmed their participation in this year's race.
"We are grateful that despite the issues we faced recently, we were still able to secure these teams," he added.
"There was some apprehension among teams after what happened last year, however, thanks to NSC's good reputation and their track record in the past, we were able to convince them to join.
"We are still looking to secure one more team for the race. Once we have finalised the lineup, we will organise a press conference to announce the team list."
The rest of the field will comprised of UCI continental teams and the Malaysia national team.