The Tour de Langkawi gets underway this weekend and Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung are happy to be lining up for Asia's most prestigious race for the 5th year in succession. The race will be returning to its more traditional format, starting on Sunday 8 March and concluding after the 8 road stages on Sunday 15 March.

The infamous stage finishing at the top of the Genting Highlands now also moves to later in the race, coming on the penultimate day of racing which should make for a more exciting race. It will be this stage that Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung targets with a predominately GC oriented team selected for the Malaysian race.

Jacques Janse van Rensburg, the recently crowned South African champion and 5th place finisher of the Tour of Oman headlines the African team. The Tour de Langkawi is a race van Rensburg really enjoys and has fared well at in the past, finishing 6th overall last year. Merhawi Kudus also returns to the Tour de Langkawi after his fine runner up performance last year and is looking forward to racing up the Genting Highlands once again.

Daniel Teklehaimanot, Natnael Berhane, Nicolas Dougall and Youcef Reguigui make up the remainder of the roster for the Tour de Langkawi. Teklehaimanot and Berhane will both be key riders on the Genting stage, remembering that the latter is a former winner of the Tour of Turkey. Reguigui will be the man for the flatter sprint stages once again and he will be able to count on the support of Dougall in the fast finishes. Last year the Algerian fast man placed in the top 10 on 5 different occasions and is no doubt targeting a stage win this year around.

"My form is very good at the moment and as a team it will be quite something if we could take the win here," van Rensburg said. "Personally I am chasing my first international win as well. We don't have a designated leader for this race though as it usually comes down to whom is the best on the Genting Highlands. I’m really happy with what the course offers this year, starting in Langkawi, finishing in Kuala Lumpur and Genting Highlands on the second last day rather than at the beginning of the event. It should be a great race again."