A year without international action, Team Sapura Cycling are looking to mark their return to racing on a bright note at the Tour of Turkey on April 11-18.

Sapura will be up against a strong field at the UCI ProSeries race which includes WorldTour teams such as Astana-Premier Tech and Deceuninck-Quickstep.

The UCI Continental team, who left for Turkey yesterday, have included Danilo Celano (Italy), Jesse Ewart (Ireland), Ahmet Orken (Turkey), Nur Aiman Rosli, Zawawi Azman and national road champion Akmal Hakim Zakaria in their squad.

“Danilo has been especially impressive while our Malaysian riders such as Aiman, Akmal and Zawawi, based on their FTP scores, are also bridging the gap to their foreign teammates.

FTP tests measure the highest average power (in watts) a rider can sustain for one hour and provide a good indicator of a rider’s current level of fitness and overall capacity.

Celano, who won Le Tour de Langkawi yellow jersey last year, will likely be Sapura’s main man in the general classification.