indONEsia: TOUR DE SINGKARAK, West Sumatera

Foreign Cyclist Will race in "Tour de Singkarak"

The Tour de Singkarak 2009 is the biggest bicycle race in Indonesia that will cover more than 459 kilometers through beautiful cities and lakes in West Sumatera. Running from Wednesday April 29^th to Sunday May 3rd 2009, the Tour de Singkarak 2009 will be made up of 4 stages: Padang-Bukittingi (92.3 kms), Bukittinggi-Sawahlunto (85.1 kms), Sawahlunto-Lake Singkarak (90.2 kms), Lake Singkarak-Lake Kembar-Lake Singkarak (188 kms), and award a total prize money of US$60,000. The Tour will surely attract cyclists from home and around the world.

As part of final assessment of the Tour route, there will be a final practice of route escort that will be attended by the Route Supervisory Team (the Marshall), consisting of 25 persons, 2 representatives of route escort and a technical delegate from Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), Mr. Jamaludin Mahmood.

DR. Sapta Nirwandar, Director General for Marketing, Ministry of Culture and Tourism in a press conference at the Jakarta Sapta Pesona building on Thursday April 2^nd said, "The Tour route is now 85% ready, and there will be route final assessment on April 3^rd-5^th 2009 involving a technical team of the world cyclists organization, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI)."

The UCI has included the Tour de Singkarak 2009 in its annual calendar of events. The Tour is expected to attract participation from 15 foreign nations around the world. The committee has so far listed confirmed participation from 14 foreign teams and 10 home ones.

The Tour de Singkarak objective is to provide a memorable sport tourism experience as the Tour combines bicycle race and tourism, in order to inspire the imaginations of champions and excite enthusiasts throughout the event. The Tour is a collaboration between West Sumatera Provincial Government, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Indonesian Cyclists Association (PB ISSI), and businesses to encourage more tourists, from home and overseas, to come to West Sumatera and take pleasure in the scenic of its landmark attraction, Lake Singkarak

Singkarak Lake

To promote the Tour de Singkarak 2009, the committee plans to hold the Soul of Minangkabau, a music concert of a mixed group of musicians from Jakarta and West Sumatera and headed by Dwiki Darmawan. The committee will also hold other festivities, such as folk party, culinary festival, and mass bicycle riding activity, in which 5,000 participants will ride old bicycles. The ministry has asked cooperation from governments, businesses, individuals and groups of societies to make these pre-Tour promotional events a success. The ministry has also asked cooperation of Metro TV as media partner and Garuda Indonesia as airline partner.

The tourist visits to West Sumatera show a rising trend. The total number of tourists in 2008 was 1,400,000, including 100,000 foreign ones. For the year 2009, the Government of West Sumatera is targeting 1,500,000 tourists.

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