Sir Mark Cavendish claimed victory in his final race as a professional cyclist. The 39-year-old produced a trademark sprint finish to cross the line first in the Tour de France Prudential Singapore Criterium. Cavendish’s fellow competitors gave him a guard of honour ahead of the race and the Manxman was understandably emotional at the end. Speaking to Eurosport through tears he said: “I realised in the last five laps it was the last 15 kilometres of my career. I passed the flamme rouge (indicating one kilometre to go) for the last time in my career and I felt that. “I didn’t race since the Tour de France so I missed that sharpness and, when the guys are here with the lead-out teams, it was always going to be difficult, but you see the amazing job that my team, Astana Kazakhstan, did leading me out, I had to go. “I had to let Jasper (Philipsen) and Biniam (Girmay) in in the final lap, I was nervous about crashing or something if I fight. I really wanted to finish at least my last race.