Team Tudor in action.
When you think about it, a sports team is a bit like a Swiss watch.
Consider the mechanical watches from renowned Swiss horologers, for example Tudor.
Even its simplest model contains more than 130 components.
Signed riders cards by the riders at the Tudor boutique in Fahrenheit88, Kuala Lumpur.
Meanwhile, one of its most complex mechanical watches − the Tudor Pelagos Ultra − contains even more parts, such as its titanium case and screw-down caseback, titanium crown, ceramic insert bezel and the in-house Calibre MT5612-U automatic movement.
A watch like this also contains a most critical component: gears.
If just one of the gears in a watch falls out of the equation, then the watch will not work.
Changizi making his mark at the Tudor boutique.
In the same way, just like how every component of a fine Swiss watch contribute towards flawless performance and form, a competitive professional cycling team helps its fastest rider win through finely coordinated strategies.
Key tactics include drafting to break the wind and controlling the pace of the peloton, the main group of riders in a road bicycle race.
Team Tudorin action.
So it’s certainly no surprise that the latest chapter in Tudor’s own sporting affiliations was the launch of its very own professional cycling team back in 2022.
The Tudor Pro Cycling team is a testament to the brand’s unwavering commitment to raising the bar.
Beyond a mere sponsorship, it embodies the watchmaker’s ethos whereby precision, durability and a relentless pursuit of perfection converge on the challenging roads of competitive cycling.
(Left) Sieberg sharing his experience in Kuala Lumpur after the Langkawi race.
Recently, just after completing the 2025 Petronas Le Tour de Langkawi, which concluded in Kuala Lumpur early last month, three members from the team – sports director Marcel Sieberg, sprinter Arvid de Kleijn and Sebastian Kolze Changizi made some time to discuss the inner workings of their Tudor Pro Cycling team.
German Sieberg, 43, is a former road racing cyclist who rode professionally between 2005 and 2021 for six different teams.
(Ffrom left) Changizi and de Kleijn have chalked up accolades for themselves.
He has been in the Le Tour de Langkawi (LTDL) twice before this, and after his retirement from riding, Sieberg assumed the post of sports director.
He reveals that preparation for a race like LTDL begins months before the flight to Malaysia.
“In fact, every one of us in the team will already be thinking of the next race the moment we cross the finishing line of whatever race that we happen to be competing in at that moment in time!
“Every day, as we get closer to the next race, we will have a briefing in the evening and another one before we start the day in the morning.
“The briefing before the race day each morning will look into more details, especially regarding the day’s weather, wind conditions and, of course, the day’s start list for all the other competing teams,” he says.
Sieberg also explains that daily training goes a long way in maintaining each rider’s fitness and competitive levels, and social networking technology plays a big part in this.
“For instance, we use VeloViewer – a physical monitoring website and service that connects to the Strava social network for athletes.
“This useful combination tracks and analyses real-time physical condition of each rider to provide enhanced analytics and data visualisation for each of our cyclists.
“This helps the team study statistics for every sprint segment and climb and look into the overall activity summary.
“VeloViewer provides our team real-time race data to improve our performance with targeted training in specific areas.
“So, even though we live in different countries, our daily training exercises are carefully coordinated and monitored using this technology,” Sieberg adds.
The team’s star sprinter de Kleijn knows that winning is never a one-man show.
The 31-year-old Dutchman from Herveld enjoyed a strong performance in this year’s race, winning two stages: Stage Two and Stage Six.
He won the second stage from Padang Besar to Kepala Batas, and then secured his second victory by winning Stage Six from Shah Alam to Port Dickson in Negri Sembilan after coming out tops in an outstanding mass sprint.
Victory in the hot conditions was de Kleijn’s first of the season and comes as no surprise as he is a veteran of LTDL – having secured identical two stage wins in the past 2023 and 2024 races in Malaysia.
“When the race moved from Langkawi and onto the mainland in Padang Besar, it started to rain!
“And this never completely stopped, although it eased a little as we raced through all the towns along the way, with spectators braving the conditions and eagerly watching the passing parade of cyclists,” recalls de Kleijn with a grin.
“It was awesome to see all the people gathered on the side of the road in the more urban areas, with the children from the schools along the route enjoying being out of the classroom to watch the spectacle, going past the countryside where rice fields stretched off into the distance.
“Whole families waited outside their houses to watch us cycle past. I never get bored of witnessing sights like these!”
For Changizi, being one of the youngest members of the team doesn’t mean he lacks experience.
He points out that this is his third time racing the LTDL.
“But let me tell you now when I am far from being a jaded competitor,” he quickly says.
“I still very much love the freedom that cycling offers.
“It’s a chance to explore the surroundings whenever we roll into a new place to race.
“Having a job that grants one this level of freedom, with nature as the ‘office’, is truly exceptional!”
The Tudor Pro Cycling team had a strong performance at the 2025 Le Tour de Langkawi, effectively highlighted by de Kleijn’s two stage wins and his second-place finish in the Overall Best Sprinters Classification.
During the 123.5km from Shah Alam to Port Dickson Stage Six section, de Kleijn showed his class in the bunch sprint, crossing the line first in 2’32:55s.
“The stage itself was quite chaotic because of the rain.
“And there were also a few unexpected crashes as this was, after all, full-on racing all the way!
“There were also plenty of fun moments.
“We managed to pick up three seconds because of our very effective team strategy of keeping the other competing riders pretty much at bay.
“In the end, we controlled the race and took the win.
“It was a perfect day for us because of how we raced as a team!” concludes de Kleijn happily.
