Langkawi secures its dates

The Tour de Langkawi has secured its days for the 2008 running of its stage race. The 13th edition of the race will be run from February 9 to 17 – one stage shorter than the 10 in the 2007 edition.

"Instead of the normal ten stages, [it] will comprise of nine stages next year," confirmed Chief Operating Officer Datuk Naim Mohamad to Cyclingnews.

"Once again the government has reiterated its full support to make the tour a great success. ... The traditional sponsors have come forward to lend their support and we promise all cycling fans a good race if not better than 2007."

Many teams use the event to score important early season wins and build form for the European races. This year the event could take on a larger scale as the Tour Down Under was nominated as a ProTour race, and runs prior to the Tour de Langkawi, January 22 - 27.

"Since most of the teams are now preparing their training and competition schedule, I am busy communicating with most of them to include Malaysia as part of their programme. For those teams that have been familiar with the Tour de Langkawi, they have made requests to come back and we look forward to some new teams participating next year."