2006 Le Tour de Langkawi started quietly and ended in storm, I mean real storm and rains that the officials had to cancel the final stage of the race on Sunday.
I am not sure whether it’s my neglegence or their poor publicity.. the Le Tour de Langkawi started and ended without me knowing it, what a bad Malaysian I am lol. Seriously the supposed Asian most pretigious bicycle race is not getting as much attention as it use to be, and that is pity.
If not mistaken, this is the 11th year of the event.. throughout these years the race has rarely attracted enough world class cyclist, Malaysians had never won any race (not even close) and the race has lost its purpose.
The idea of generating Malaysian interest in cycling and producing world class players never succeeded. Yes we have a so call “prestigious” Tour de Langkawi but that’s all, we have no good training programs and rubbish facilities (wait.. actually we don’t have any facilities at all).
The foreign media didn’t bother much about the race, even our local media were showing mild interest as that’s more news covering English football rather than our own cycling race. So why are we still having the race, just for keeping the pride?
And bad turned to worse, some Japanese riders filed complaints that they haven’t received the prize money they won in last race.. bravo Le Tour de Langkawi.. not!