Jasper Philipsen outsprints Mark Cavendish to win Tour de France Singapore Criterium

For the second time in as many years, the gracious host of Singapore welcomed some of the world's best riders to its streets for the Tour de France Prudential Singapore Criterium on Sunday afternoon. In the 60km event, Alpecin-Deceuninck's Jasper Philipsen raised his arms in celebration having crossed the line first.

The Belgian's sprint would not be matched, with Mark Cavendish (Legends) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) finishing in second and third, respectively.

"Of course it’s not an official race but maybe it counts as 20," said Philipsen, whose stunning season has seen him win 19 races, four of them being Tour de France stages.

For the Singaporean and international fans in attendance - who numbered in their thousands - the exhibition event was a fantastic experience and saw many of the world's best in action along a 3km circuit. With just 20 laps to deal with, the winner was to be decided after 60km on a route that would take in Singaporean landmarks such as the War Memoiral Park, the Fountain of Wealth, the Merlion, and the Esplanade.

Read more: Mark Cavendish, Chris Froome and Peter Sagan defeated in rickshaw relay

In turn, there was plenty of interest to make the day's first breakaway. However, moves pioneered by the likes of Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech) and Boon Kiak Yeo (Singapore Cycling Federation) would not stick and the peloton was back together after 10km to race the first intermediate sprint.

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Tadej Pogačar in action in Singapore

Peter Sagan (Legends) was powerful enough to pick up the maximum points to begin his day in style, whilst he, Jan Tratnik (Jumbo-Visma), Pogačar and Nur Aiman Mohd Zariff (Terengganu Polygon Cycling Team) took advantage of the sprint to clip off the front of the peloton.

For the next 24km or so, the quartet hung off the front of the race by a margin hovering between 10-20 seconds, leaving Bahrain Victorious to take up the chase in the peloton behind. During this period, Sagan built his advantage in the intermediate sprint competition - with the four points classification points falling on the 4th, 8th, 12th and 16th laps of the race.

The end was nigh for the breakaway, however, when Pogačar attacked his companions with 32.6km to ride. This unsettled the cohesion and eventually led to their capture 26km from the finish.

Late attacks and sprint finish

With the quartet eventually caught, the peloton's opportunists sensed their moment to strike and a litany of attacks were launched inside the final 20km. But again, none were for sticking, despite the best efforts of the likes of Victor Lafay (Cofidis), Brandon Rivera (Ineos Grenadiers) and the 18-year-old Eamon Lim Bing Yi (Singapore Cycling Federation).

In the meantime, Sagan secured the day's points classification after a tight battle with Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates) in the final sprint.

A lull soon developed in the peloton as they entered the final 11km, which allowed Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Pogačar to attack as a three-up group. Their blockbuster move wowed the home supporters who were vociferous in their support for Vuelta a España champion, Tour de France polka-dot jersey winner and the Tour's runner-up, respectively.

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Ciccone, Sagan, Pogačar (left to right) in the late attack

For a while, it appeared that their move may stay clear, but with the peloton within touching distance inside the last 4.5km, Pogačar looked to attack once more. This spat Ciccone and Kuss back to the peloton and teed up the finale as the Slovenian looked to win alone in style.

He was only caught with 300m to go, as Sagan led out his teammate in the Legends team, Mark Cavendish. Rounding the final corner in the lead of the race, only 150m separated the Manxman from victory, but Philipsen's acceleration was too much

The Belgian came over Cavendish's left-hand shoulder and surged to the win, with Pogačar sweeping home third as the peloton arrived to the finish outside Suntec City altogether.

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Cavendish, Philipsen, and Pogačar (left to right) on the podium