For the first time in twenty editions, a Turkish team will take part in Le Tour de Langkawi with Torku Sekerspor due to line up on Malaysia’s Paradisiacal island with Belgian star and former Astana rider Kevin Seeldrayers as well as up and coming Turkish sprinter Ahmet Örken who won stage 9 of the 2014 Tour of Qinghai Lake at the age of 21.

Moreover, the Turkish outfit has boosted its ambitions by hiring respected coach Lionel Marie who previously worked as a sport’s director for Crédit Agricole, Cofidis, Garmin, Orica-GreenEdge and Giant-Shimano.

“I’ve found a team with a great dynamics and people eager to learn from the world of the Pro Teams”, the Frenchman noticed. “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. We’ll come with Örken as a sprinter and our two captains, Seeldrayers and [Tomasz] Marczynski.”

Best young rider of the 2009 Giro d’Italia (10th overall), Seeldrayers, 28, 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.

Based in Konya on the Asian part of the country and sponsored by a huge chocolate and cake maker, Torku’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, reached the big league of cycling in 2008.

“Malaysia and Turkey currently have strong economic ties and a long history of friendship”, said the CEO of the 2015 Le Tour de Langkawi Datuk Abdul Malik Mydin. “It’s a great pleasure to help each other develop cycling as well. For our twentieth 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.”

The Torku Sekerspor team will be followed on Malaysian roads by Turkish national television TRT.

THE TORKU SEKERSPOR TEAM FOR LE TOUR DE LANGKAWI 2015:

Kevin SEELDRAYERS (BEL), Tomazs MARCZYNSKI (POL), Sergiy GRECHYN (UKR), Ahmet ÖRKEN (TUR), Nazim BAKIRCI (TUR), and Mirac KAL (TUR).