Le Tour de Langkawi

KUALA LUMPUR: Jalan Ampang and Jalan P. Ramlee here will be closed to facilitate cyclists competing in Stage 1 of the Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) 2022 ...

The eight-day Malaysian race is back with a late-season slot and a line-up heavy on WorldTour teams.

The final stage on Tuesday October 18 loops its way around the island on the Kuah Langkawi loop to deliver 115.9km and a finale for the sprinters. Then it is onto Sabak Bernam for a flat 137.9km stage to provide some relief and excitement for the sprinters. That is thanks to the route that spirals in toward a steep finishing climb, Gunung Raya, which takes riders from 34m to 864m above sea level over 13km, with the last 300 metres delivering a final sting with a gradient of 15%. It is only a short downhill before the road starts to rise again toward the Genting Highlands finale, with the last 8km of racing delivering an average gradient of 10% and sections of 15%. [Mark Padun](https://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/mark-padun/) and [Esteban Chaves](https://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/johan-esteban-chaves-rubio/) are among the EF Education-EasyPost line-up. [Oscar Rodriguez](https://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/oscar-rodriguez-garaicoechea/) among their trio of climbers, with the 2018 Vuelta a España stage winner joined by Augusto Rubio Reyes and Vuelta a Asturias winner [Iván Sosa](https://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/ivan-ramiro-sosa-cuervo/). Then there is stage 3, which is set to be a make or break point for overall challengers. At Langkawi, there are 200 points on offer for the overall winner and 20 per stage win, which will not be enough to change anyone’s fortunes. The rider from New Zealand has had some strong results in the tours in the second half of the season after coming back from a COVID-19-shortened Tour de France. Now, however, things look settled, with Lotto and Israel-Premier Tech all-but confirmed as the two teams to lose WorldTour status in 2023, while Alpecin-Deceuninck and Arkéa-Samsic are promoted. UAE Team Emirates, Cofidis, Lotto Soudal, EF Education-EasyPost and Movistar will be lining up at the race for the first time, while Astana-Qazaqstan are returning. China’s WorldTour ranked Tour of Guangxi, which was due to finish off the top-tier season, was cancelled again this year.

SHAH ALAM, Oct 11 — The organiser of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) 2022, Human Voyage has taken various precautionary measures should the eight-stage race ...

“We also have monitoring squads to check the route. There will be no changes in terms of racing, technical and so on... “We have taken steps to avoid flood-proned route in all the stages.

Just a month ago, Langkawi was hyped as a final desperate battleground for teams on the edge of losing WorldTour status.

Cofidis in 14th and Arkéa-Samsic in 18th are separated by less than 400 points. The final team ranking is still up for grabs. Movistar ran up the ranking nicely over the past few weeks and could end the season ranked as high as 11th. With the European calendar closing this weekend with the Veneto Classic in Italy and the GP de Nations in France, and the Japan Cup on October 16 in the final UCI-level one-day race, the closing two stages of Langkawi will be the last chance to earn points. [Vaughters on relegation: There’s a better way of doing it](https://www.velonews.com/news/road/jonathan-vaughters-commentary-if-we-have-to-have-relegation-in-cycling-there-are-better-ways-to-do-it/) [Analysis: The unintended consequences of the UCI’s relegation game](https://www.velonews.com/news/road/analysis-the-unintended-consequences-of-the-ucis-relegation-game/) [Lotto-Soudal looks doomed in WorldTour quest](https://www.velonews.com/news/road/lotto-soudal-all-but-doomed-to-worldtour-relegation-as-arkea-samsic-moves-out-of-reach/) [Lotto-Soudal](https://www.velonews.com/tag/lotto-soudal/) and Israel Premier Tech both look likely to fall short of what’s called the “sporting criteria” measured by the accumulation of a three years of UCI points. Six WorldTour and four ProTeam squads still made the trek to Malaysia for the race from October 11-18 for what will be the final days of racing on the UCI calendar in 2022.