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 the race developed, the lead of the two Asian powerhouses, Ramos and Zhu, expanded from 40 seconds to more than 5 minutes. Not until the Asian duo was overwhelmed by the main peloton 10 km out—just as the security breach-induced heavy traffic marred the finish in Taiping, Malaysia. This led to the neutralization of stage 1 of the ninth edition of Le Tour de Langkawi.
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).
For the then Pagcor-Casino Filipino trade team manager Ric Rodriquez, this unexpected turn of events was clearly a bonus for the Philippines because the team initially aimed only for Asian rider classification only. Rodriguez further added that this was truly a welcome development for the fledgling trade team which was the first professional cycling team in the Philippines.
Ramos’ gutsy move put him on that high-caliber level after valiantly chasing the solo escapee Yongbiao Zhu from the China National Team in the opening kilometers to form the two-man Asian powerhouse lead pack.
Merculio Ramos’ dominance—and brief romance with history—on the opening stage proved fleeting, as he was involved in an early crash during Stage 2, losing significant time in the aftermath.
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