KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 23rd – The French WorldTeam, Cofidis has withdrawn from the PETRONAS Le Tour de Langkawi 2025 (PLTdL25). Their spot will be taken by the Spanish ProTeam, Equipo Kern Pharma.
It was confirmed by the PLTdL25 Chief Operating Officer (COO), Emir Abdul Jalal after the team contacted the organisers last Thursday.
In response, the organisers acted quickly and received immediate confirmation from Kern Pharma, who will be making a return to the 29th edition of the tour which runs from September 28 to October 5.
“Although we’re a bit disappointed with team’s decision, we’re still confident the excitement of the PLTdL25 won’t be affected because Kern Pharma is also a great team. Due to time constraints, we don’t have the opportunity to lobby another WorldTeam as a replacement, and Kern Pharma, which was on the list of four teams that had to be left out previously, responded quickly and expressed their readiness to participate in PLTdL25,” said Emir in a media statement today.
For a record, Equipo Kern Pharma made its first appearance in PLTdL23 with two of its riders, Pablo Castillo Zapater, finishing third overall, 58 seconds behind the overall green jersey winner Simon Carr (EF Education) while Jon Agirre Egana finished eighth.
The team also finished third overall in the Best Team category behind EF Education and Euskaltel-Euskadi.
However, Kern Pharma had a stronger performance last year when they won the Best Team category finishing 1 minute and 39 seconds ahead of Astana.
In addition, three of their riders were in the top 10 with Unai Iribar in third place overall followed by Ibon Ruiz (7th) and Jorge Gutierrez (8th).
“At the moment, we have not received the list of six riders who will be sent by Kern Pharma to PLTdL25, but among the team’s 22 riders is the PLTdL22 champion, Ivan Sosa. It will certainly be interesting if Kern Pharma also fields this former Movistar rider from Colombia. We’re confident that after two consecutive years of experiencing the twists and turns of the PLTdL race, Kern Pharma will send a strong line-up, especially since they were not included in the wild card teams for this year’s Vuelta a Espana,” said Emir.
Without Cofidis, the two WorldTeams that will be competing are XDS Astana and Team Picnic PostNL. Kern Pharma joins eight other ProTeams that have confirmed their participation – VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane; Team Polti VisitMalta; Solution Tech Vini Fantini; Burgos Burpellet BH; Unibet Tietema Rockets; Total Energies; Tudor Pro Cycling and Uno-X Mobility.
The 29th edition of PLTdL25 will pass through 12 states in Peninsular Malaysia over 8 days, covering a total distance of 1,243.5km, starting in Pulau Langkawi and ending at KLCC, Kuala Lumpur.
The 2ProSeries tour on the UCI Asia Tour racing calendar is organized by the Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) through the National Sports Council (MSN) with the support of the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF).
The race will begin in Langkawi Island on September 28 with the first stage covering a distance of 96.5 kilometers (km) followed by Stage 2 from Padang Besar, Perlis to Kepala Batas, Penang (170.1km);
Stage 3 from Gerik, Perak to Pasir Puteh, Kelantan (198.2km); Stage 4 from Kuala Terengganu to Kemaman (140.8km); Stage 5 from Temerloh to Fraser’s Hill, Pahang (133.7km); Stage 6 from Shah Alam, Selangor to Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan (123.4km); Stage 7 from Melaka to Medini, Johor (214.6km) and Stage 8 from Tangkak, Johor to Kuala Lumpur (180.5km) on October 5.
SEKRETARIAT PETRONAS LE TOUR de LANGKAWI 2025
MAJLIS SUKAN NEGARA
