Jonas Vingegaard wins Tour de France Singapore Criterium

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Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour de France Prudential Singapore Criterium after 65km of circuit racing in downtown Singapore. 

The event was more of an exhibition event than race but the big-name riders made numerous attacks despite the heat and humidity. Mark Cavendish fought for the points competition, fighting with other riders in the different intermediate sprints.

Vingegaard, Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali, Simon Geschke and Enric Mas got away with two of the 20 laps to race and then Vingegaard got away alone with two attacks in the final kilometre. The Jumbo-Visma rider crossed the lines with his arms in the air, showing off his 2022 Tour de France winner's jersey. 

Froome edged out Nibali to take second place.

“It’s been a great season and great to take a victory in yellow here too. Every time you win in yellow is special,” Vingegaard said.

“I didn't expect that we'd go away in a break, I thought some guys wanted a sprint. But we got away and there were four good riders out there. It was hard, it was really humid and so a hard day.”  

The criterium came after Cofidis won the team time trial race to steal some early glory and other riders won amatuer criteriums and the Brompton folding bike World Championships. 

Alejandro Valverde was a surprise non-starter in the criterium after feeling ill but all the big-name invited riders turned up ready for some end of season fun.  

The 20-lap race saw a number of attacks and chases, with a pre-race script perhaps established to put on an entertaining race. However the riders had to race and occasionally go deep to hold the wheels on the fast circuit that includes parts of the spectacular city-centre skyline and the roads used for the Formula 1 Grand Prix.

After 15km, a group got away that included Cavendish, Sepp Kuss, Emnric Mas and Max Walscheid of Cofidis. When they were caught another group jumped away, with Cavendish again there to target the intermediate sprints. He was not happen when a Lotto-Soudal rider beat him to the line in the second sprint. 

With seven laps to go Jasper Philipsen, Cavendish’s teammate in the Legends Team, gave him a leadout to win more points, the two swapping a first-pump in celebration. He made sure he won the final sprint to win the competition.

Rohan Dennis sparked another attack with 10km to race but they soon faded. Then Froome launched a move with seven kilometres to go and Nibali, then Vingegaard, and Geschke Mas joined them. 

The peloton did not react and so the five surged away. 

In the final two kilometres Geschke tried a solo attack but was pulled back. Then Vingegaard danced away, showing off his yellow jersey. When only Nibali could go with him, he kicked again, got a gap and surged away to win with his arms in the air. He genuinely seemed surprised to have won.