KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Pro Cycling (MPC) team principal Sayuti Zahit believes Malaysia needs to be wary of the rising talent from Indonesia and Thailand.
The MPC squad returned to Malaysia today after competing in the Tour de Siak in Indonesia.
Sayuti said he was impressed with the young Indonesian talent competing in the tour.
"Last year, I raised the topic (to Malaysian sporting authorities) about Indonesia and Thailand each having three continental teams to develop their young talent," said Sayuti when contacted today.
"And at Tour de Siak, we saw plenty of new talent from these two countries, especially Indonesia. These new riders are between 19 to 23 years old and some of them look very promising.
"This is something that we, together with the Malaysia National Cycling Federation (MNCF) and the National Sports Council (NSC), need to view seriously.
"This is because the 2025 Sea Games (Thailand) is not that far away. We will also be hosts for the 2027 Sea Games (Malaysia), so preparations have to start from now."
Malaysia currently has two UCI continental teams — MPC and Terengganu Polygon Cycling Team.
Malaysian riders have won the men's mass start road race gold at the last two editions of the Sea Games via Nur Aiman Rosli (Hanoi 2021) and Nur Amirull Fakhruddin Mazuki (Phnom Penh 2023).
The road race gold is considered the mother of all gold in the Sea Games cycling competition.
MPC riders did well to place second in the overall team general classification at Tour de Siak, which concluded yesterday.
MPC rider Saari Amri Abd Rasim was able to place third in the second stage.
Tour de Siak was MPC's first race abroad since the team was formed in August and Sayuti is looking to build on their momentum.
MPC is the successor of the now-defunct Team Sapura Cycling.
"It was a decent start. I would say it is a good but not great result. The tour gave us a chance to test our new riders and build their chemistry with our old riders (ex-Sapura)," said Sayuti.
"If we can continue to improve consistently, we will should be able to achieve better results next year."
MPC will next compete at the Tour of Nanjing from Dec 15 to 25 and the Tour of Thailand in January.
