The Cycling Tour of Malta this year enters its 14th edition with 13 foreign teams from England, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Holland participating alongside Maltese teams from three local clubs. This year’s Tour will be held between 12 and 15 April.

John Zammit, chairman of the Organising Committee thanked all the collaborators and the sponsors, as well as the police, without whose support it would not have been possible to organize this edition.

He said the first stage of the cycling tour will take place on Thursday on a 32 kilometre individual time trial along the coastline. The second stage will be a road race of 100/70 kilometres along the San Martin Circuit. The third stage is a road race of 85 kilometres along the Ta’ Pinellu Circuit with the fourth and final stage being a one hour bike ride.

The local three clubs are Greens Cycling Club, Mosta AF Sign Studio and Qormi. The foreign clubs are Charlottenburg and a German cycling group, the UK seniors England team, British Cycling Central Division team, QCP, Metropolitan Police and Anglia Sport cycling team, all of England, Ulster team of Ireland, Isle of Man team, Noord Cycling of the Netherlands, Sikania Bike, AS Parisi Ingoglia and Ballatore, all of Sicily.

The Minister for Tourism and Culture, Dr Francis Zammit Dimech, launched the 14th edition of the International Cycling Malta Tour 2007 yesterday.

Among other things, he said that cycling could also contribute towards the tourism industry, adding that sports tourism attracted over 80,000 visitors every year thus contributing millions of Maltese liri to the Maltese economy.

Minister Zammit Dimech said that diving, with arrivals of over 50,000 visitors, is the sport most sought after by tourists. He said that Malta attracts visitors for other sport disciplines including football, athletics and swimming. Athletes come to Malta for their winter camps.

The Minister for Tourism and Culture said that with the continuous provision of sports pavilions and sport facilities – such as the sports pavilions of Gozo and Cottonera and the one that is being constructed in Kirkop, the University Sports Complex, the Swimming Pool Complex at Tal-Qroqq and yacht marinas in Malta and Gozo – Malta could become a top sports centre in the Mediterranean offering facilities to sportsmen in Northern Europe during the winter months.

The official sponsors of the Tour are the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, the Malta Tourism Authority, the Ministry for Education, Youth and Employment, the Maltese Council for Sport, the Ministry of Finance, the Local Councils of Gzira, Mellieha, Mgarr, Naxxar, Pembroke, Sliema and St Paul’s Bay, the Malta Police, APS Bank Ltd and St John Ambulance.