To clear the ambiguity on who truly holds the highest achievement in Le Tour de Langkawi:
To date, the greatest achievement by a Filipino cyclist in the Tour de Langkawi’s 29 editions is Marcelo Felipe’s 8th place overall in the General Classification in 2018. The pride of Llanera, Nueva Ecija, and former 7-Eleven rider, Felipe, surpassed the two-decade-old record set by Carlo “Tisoy” Jazul, who podiumed on Stage 7 (Johor Bahru-Muar) of the then 2.5-classified Le Tour de Langkawi.
In its race’s history, Jazul is hailed as the first Asian to step onto the stage podium in 1998—two years before Hong Kong national, Wong Kam-Po, made his mark in 2000. On the other hand, Arnel Quirimit eventually became the 3rd overall in the final Asian Rider Classification while Jazul respectably finished at 10th.
In 1998, the Le Tour de Langkawi race classification was rated 2.5—the same category applied to the final edition of the Marlboro Tour—which was then the lowest tier of UCI-sanctioned races. The Tour de Langkawi was only upgraded to 2.HC in 2005, just a step below the WorldTour, and has been classified as a UCI ProSeries event since 2020.
As luck would have it, in the 2004 Telekom Malaysia Le Tour de Langkawi, two Casino-Filipino riders, Merculio Ramos and Lloyd Lucien Reynante, and another Asian rider, Yongbiao Zhu (China National Team), earned the privilege of wearing leader’s jersey in their respective classification.
These unprecedented stage honors of the two Filipinos and a Chinese national came after the unforeseen mix-up and unusual circumstance in the race’s nine editions caused by security breach-induced heavy traffic in the final kilometers.
As a result, the officials awarded all the finishers the same time of 2:35:09 after the neutralization of stage 1 and the withdrawal of points and bonuses.
Eventually, the underdog leader, Merculio Ramos, was awarded the ceremonial Yellow Jersey (the present time Petronas Green Jersey) as he won two of the three crucial intermediate sprints—a key deciding factor for the wearing of the leader’s jersey—during a two-man breakaway.
On the other hand, Lloyd Lucien Reynante seized the ceremonial MAS Best Asian Jersey (Best Asian Rider Classification).
In 2022, Nichol Pareja made history as Best Asian Rider in Stage 7 of Petronas Le Tour de Langkawi, in tandem with the Philippine National Team, which also claimed the Best Asian Team honors.
But the trend of hauling Best Asian honor was far from over. The following year, in 2023, then 7-Eleven rider Junreck Carcueba made it to the finish line, second to Riku Onaka of JCL Team Ukyo from Japan. This made him in one instance the second Best Asian rider for that stage.
Meanwhile, the Philippine National Team’s record in 1998 remains unmatched, as it finished 10th overall in the team classification—still the best performance among the five Asian squads (Malaysia, China, Malaysia B, and others) that year.
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