Turkey's Torku Sakerspor To Mark Debut At LTdL

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 16 (Bernama) -- The organisers of the 2015 Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL), Human Voyage Sdn Bhd, Friday announced the participation of Turkey's first continental team, Torku Sakerspor, in the 20th edition of the LTdL scheduled from March 8 to 15. "Malaysia and Turkey currently have strong economic ties and a long history of friendship. It is a great pleasure to help each other develop cycling as well. For our 20th edition, it's nice to have a team from a new horizon. "It shows that our event keeps expanding its influence all over the world. I'm sure Torku will deliver a good show at LTdL," said LTdL chief executive officer Abdul Malik Mydin in a statement. The team will be making their debut in the Asia's prestigious cycling race with its Belgian star and former Astana rider Kevin Seeldrayers, as well as the up and coming Turkish sprinter Ahmet Örken, who won stage nine of the Tour of Qinghai Lake last year. Moreover, the Turkish outfit has boosted its ambitions by hiring respected coach Lionel Marie from France, who was previously the sports director for Crédit Agricole, Cofidis, Garmin, Orica-GreenEdge and Giant-Shimano. "I've found a team with great dynamics and people eager to learn from the world of the Pro Teams. I've seen some serious improvements during our training camps. "Now Le Tour de Langkawi will be our first test to evaluate ourselves ahead of the Presidential Tour of Turkey at the end of April with Örken as the sprinter and our two captains, Seeldrayers and (Tomasz) Marczynski," said the Frenchman. Seeldrayers, 28, who was the best young rider of the 2009 Giro d’Italia, is a pure climber, while Marczynski, 30, a versatile rider from Poland, claimed his most significant result when he completed the 2012 Vuelta a Espana in 13th position overall. The Konya-based team's main aim is to develop Turkish riders in a country where cycling is booming since the Tour of Turkey, also a Hors-Category event like Le Tour de Langkawi which reached the big league of cycling in 2008. Besides Seeldrayers, Marczynski and Orken, the other team members for 2015 LTdL are Sergiy Grechyn of Ukraine and Turkey's Nazim Bakirci and Mirac Kal. -- BERNAMA