Del Toro outshines everyone in Singapore: a solitary victory leaves sprinters stunned.

The long-distance duel between Isaac del Toro and Paul Seixas knows no pause, even at the end of the season. On Sunday, in the Singapore Criterium , the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider pulled off a surprise victory, taking a solo victory ahead of his Decathlon-CMA CGM rival.

The Mexican champion had ended up in a quartet of breakaway riders, including Seixas, Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla), and Søren Waerenskjold (UNO X Mobility), who had pulled away on the street circuit. As the final lap approached, del Toro simply dropped away from the pack, opening a gap that Seixas was unable to close. The Frenchman kept the gap to just a few seconds, but was never able to rejoin the race until the finish line.

Seixas finished second, just a handful of seconds behind the winner. Waerenskjold won the sprint for third place, while the peloton, which many had imagined would be a sprint finish, crossed the finish line about 30 seconds behind.

The Singapore Criterium was the first of two Far Eastern criteriums organized by ASO , the company that manages the Tour de France. The second will be the traditional Saitama Criterium in Japan, scheduled for the following weekend. The Singapore race was run over 25 laps of a two-kilometer street circuit.