Ineos Grenadiers and Jumbo-Visma announce teams for Tour de France Singapore Criterium

Cofidis, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Bahrain Victorious also announce their full lineups, with Mark Cavendish and Chris Froome on the startlist

16:00, Thursday 12th October 2023

George Poole

Junior Writer

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The peloton races along at the 2022 Tour de France Prudential Singapore Criterium

With a little over two weeks to go until the annual Tour de France Prudential Singapore Criterium, team news is starting to filter through for the eight WorldTour teams who will be in attendance at this year's race. Ineos Grenadiers and Jumbo-Visma are the latest sides to have announced their teams.

The winner of last year's event and reigning Tour de France champion, Jonas Vingegaard, will not be at the start in Singapore, with Sepp Kuss instead leading the Jumbo-Visma ranks. Attila Valter and Jan Tratnik join the Vuelta a España winner in the squad.

Last year's race was the first edition of a Tour de France Criterium in Southeast Asia, with Vingegaard prevailing ahead of the retiring Vincenzo Nibali in Singapore. Less of a race, more of an exhibition, the Singapore Criterium sees "32 of the world's biggest names" compete around a closed circuit in Downtown Singapore and it isn't unfair to say that some of the racing may be pre-empted at times.

This makes for some exciting racing for the local fans, who turn out in their droves to get eyes on 32 of the world's best riders. Amongst its number will be Ineos Grenadiers' quintet: Egan Bernal, Josh Tarling, Brandon Rivera and Carlos Rodríguez.

Bernal will not be the only former Tour de France winner on the start line, as Israel-Premier Tech's Chris Froome will return to Singapore for the second time in as many years. The 38-year-old four-time winner of the Tour de France recently revealed his intentions to return to the Grand Tour next summer, though he will have to battle for a spot on the team's shortlist after four disappointing years post-crash. Israel-Premier Tech are the only non-WorldTeam to be represented thus far.

Tadej Pogačar, Giulio Ciccone and Jasper Philipsen to honour their jerseys

A peculiarity of the criteriums - at least for the average fan - is that the winners of the Tour de France's four jerseys carry these into the Singapore Criterium. That is to say, they race in their respective yellow, white, polka-dot and green jerseys, despite the Tour de France having finished many months ago.

The absence of Vingegaard will be felt, but Lidl-Trek's Giulio Ciccone is expected to be at the start, though this has yet to be confirmed after his Tre Valli Varesine crash.

White jersey winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) will line up at the Singapore Criterium for the first time, whilst green jersey winner Jasper Philipsen leads his Alpecin-Deceuninck team after enjoying the best season of his career.

The Belgian team announced their roster a week ago, naming Gianni Vermeersch, Dries De Bondt and Jonas Rickaert as the supporting cast for Philipsen. Cofidis and Bahrain Victorious are the only other two WorldTeams to have named their full lineups, with final names to be added by Lidl-Trek, Astana Qazaqstan, UAE Team Emirates and Israel-Premier Tech.

Victor Lafay, Thomas Champion, Simon Geschke and Axel Zingle make up the Cofidis contingent, with Matevž Govekar, Kamil Gradek, Pello Bilbao and Yukiya Arashiro flying the flag for Bahrain Victorious.

Both Mark Cavendish and Jasper Philipsen will be back in Singapore and could sprint it out for the win

The final rider confirmed to date is 34-time Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish, who would have originally been riding his final ever bike race, but has since postponed his retirement for one more year in order to return to the Tour de France next summer following this year's withdrawal.

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The Tour de France Prudential Singapore Criterium takes place on October 29 and the current startlist is as follows:

Alpecin-Deceuninck (WT)