PETRONAS was announced on Friday as the title sponsor for the 27th edition of Le Tour de Langkawi 2023 (LTdL), where they will now have the leading rider in the General Classification in Green Jersey for the ProSeries tour that will start on Sept. 23-30.
Minister of Youth and Sports YB Hannah Yeoh said at the ceremony to unveil the sponsorship that the presence of the petroleum giant was a welcome addition to the LTdL family given the constant challenges of organizing the annual cycling race.
“KBS is proud of this partnership and would like to extend a million thanks to PETRONAS for being the main sponsor of LTdL 2023.
“And what has made this partnership even better is that PETRONAS has also agreed to be the Title Sponsor for three consecutive years – 2023, 2024, and 2025,” said Hannah.
A total of 22 teams consisting of two (2) World Teams, eight (8) ProTeams, 10 UCI Continental teams, and 2 Continental teams including the 7-Eleven-Cliqq-Air 21 team from the Philippines, will participate.
Also present at the ceremony were PETRONAS Group Senior General Manager of Strategic Communications, Datin Anita Azrina Abd Aziz; Chief Secretary of KBS, Dr Nagulendran Kangayatkarasu; Director General of the National Sports Council (MSN), Dato’ Ahmad Shapawi Ismail; Datuk Abu Sabah Abdul Wahab, President of the National Cycling Federation of Malaysia (PKBM) and Vice President 1 of PKBM, Dato’ Amarjit Singh.
Hannah explained that the amount allocated to KBS to organize the race at the initial stage was only RM8 million and as an organizer, MSN needed a much bigger budget of around at least RM15 to make the ProSeries tour event with a ‘world class’ standard a success.
She said that the situation faced by MSN was a huge challenge in these four months as they had to ensure that the organization of the race remained at the highest level while at the same time looking for ways to garner more sponsorships.
Hannah also praised MSN for providing the right sponsorship package to the management of PETRONAS, enough for them to agree to come on board as the Title Sponsor in a bid to make the LTdL 2023 a resounding success.
“I am sure that the MSN team led by Dato’ Ahmad Shapawi will put in place the best strategy in ensuring that all the sponsorship packages will be fulfilled and implemented,” he said.
As the Title Sponsor, PETRONAS has also been given ‘naming rights’ to the event with the official logo now changed to PETRONAS LE TOUR DE LANGKAWI 2023, which carries the PETRONAS logo on all LTdL event branding.
PETRONAS has also been given the right to the overall leader’s jersey – which is now in PETRONAS green synonymous with the corporate color of the petroleum giant.
“Yellow has been in use for the overall leader‘s jersey for the past 26 years, so we are changing it for the first time to the PETRONAS green. This is a shift in ensuring that LTdL has a unique color for its leader like the yellow ‘Mailot Jeune jersey for the Tour de France and the pink “Maglia Rosa” jersey for the Giro d’Italia.
“I’m sure this decision will give considerable added value to the PETRONAS sponsorship,” she added.
KBS is confident that through ‘live’ broadcast via sports broadcaster Eurosport and hundreds of millions of viewers on local and foreign television, and social media platforms Youtube and TikTok, this will give multiple returns on the amount of sponsorship that has been extended.
Additionally, promotional programs such as the Cavalcade parade and side events will also ensure that the PETRONAS brand and products remain close to the Malaysian populace.
“As an organizer, KBS is also proud at being able to be a partner and ‘have a relationship’ with a world brand name like PETRONAS that has great popularity and credibility, especially in motorsports through their sponsorships of Formula 1 and MotoGP,” added Hannah.
LTdL 2023 is organized by the Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) through MSN in collaboration with the National Cycling Federation of Malaysia (PKBM) is a ProSeries race that starts in Kerteh, this September 23 and will go through 11 of the 12 states in the Peninsula, to end in front of the Twin Towers PETRONAS (KLCC) on September 30, involving a race distance of 1,277.1km.