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Team Sky set for Tour de Langkawi debut

By Cycling News

published 27 January 2015

Deignan and Pate on provisional roster

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Danny Pate (Team Sky).(Image credit: Team Sky)

Philip Deignan is among Sky's best climbers.(Image credit: Team Sky)

A fireman helps the riders cool down at the Tour de Langkawi and inadvertently creates a rainbow(Image credit: Bettini Photo)

The Tour de Langkawi likes to put on a show at each stage(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

Matt Brammeier (Synergy Baku) was the king of the Langkawi mountains(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

Team Sky will make their debut at the Tour de Langkawi in March with Philip Deignan, Danny Pate and Chris Sutton provisionally down on the team roster for the Asian race.

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The British WorldTour team have never raced in the Malaysia 2.HC event, which runs from March 5-18. However they are not the only WorldTour team set to start the race with Tinkoff-Saxo, Orica-GreenEdge and Astana all set to compete this year.

“Those teams are four of the five very best in the world”, said race CEO, Datuk Malik Mydin. “We’re talking about teams who have won three Tour de France, one Giro d’Italia and two Vuelta a España in the past three years. It’s a huge honour to have them racing in Malaysia. Their faith in our organization is very much appreciated.”

Although Team Sky are unlikely to send Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, or Richie Porte they are likely to be built their squad around Deignan’s climbing talents. The Irishman finished 11th in the race in 2009 while riding for the Cervelo TestTeam. Third year professional Ian Boswell is also set to race the event.

The remaining four spots on Team Sky’s roster have yet to be pencilled in. On Monday it was confirmed that Bradley Wiggins would miss the Challenge Mallorca. The 2012 Tour de France winner will instead make his 2015 racing debut at the Tour of Qatar in February.

The Tour de Langkawi also welcomes seven ProContinental teams this year with MTN-Qhubeka, Androni-Venezuela, Bardiani CSF, Team Colombia and Unitedhealthcare are all included on the team list.