Le Tour de Femina to mark another milestone for Malaysian cycling

PUTRAJAYA: After playing host to prestigious road cycling events such as the Jelajah Malaysia and the Le Tour de Langkawi, Malaysia can pride itself on staging yet another top international race – albeit for women this time – the inaugural Le Tour de Femina.

The Sept 7-12 event is sanctioned by the International Cycling Union (UCI) as a 2.1 category (multiple stage) event and the six-stage race covers a total distance of 719.9km from Jitra, Kedah, to Cyberjaya.

Thirty 2.1 category races are being held worldwide, but only a handful are in Asia. Malaysia will become only the third Asian nation to host a full-fledged women’s stage race after China and Thailand.

Event organisers Ciclista Sports Sdn Bhd, who previously managed the Le Tour de Langkawi from 2016 to 2018, are confident of attracting the participation of top teams and riders, particularly from Europe and Oceania.

Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, who launched the event yesterday, believes Le Tour de Femina will mark another milestone for Malaysian cycling, fans, stakeholders and the Malaysian people.

He also hailed the staging of this event as a big boost to the Asian women’s cycling scene as they bid to close the gap on their counterparts from other continents.

“The move is in line with UCI’s efforts to provide equal opportunities for women to compete in topnotch cycling races and open more pathways for women riders to scale greater heights in the sport,” said Syed Saddiq.

“This would also help encourage the formation of more professional women’s cycling clubs in this part of the world.

“We want more young women, not just the men, to play a prominent role as we try to make cycling a culture in Malaysia. Hopefully, the Le Tour de Femina will be able to inspire more women to take up cycling.

“We want to see the inaugural edition being staged successfully and make it an annual fixture just like the Le Tour de Langkawi.”

Ciclista Sports chief executive officer Shahirudeen Seeni is pleased to see the overwhelming response from teams in Europe.

“We’re confident of filling the 22-team roster with quality teams. Even before the event’s launch, we’ve got many e-mails from teams expressing their interest to participate,” said Shahirudeen.

“Now we probably have to filter them because we also want to hand the opportunities to Asian riders as this event will also offer qualifying points for next year’s Tokyo Olympics.”

The Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) face a tricky task to prepare a formidable squad to compete against their more illustrious rivals.