The 2012 Tour de France will start in Liège, Belgium on 30 June and finish as usual on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 22 July.
So, having had a look at Wiggins odds a month ago I was tempted to lump on him at 4/1 but backed off in case he got injured. You can't get 2's on him now, best on oddschecker is 8/5 with bwin!
Cadel Evans was the early favorite but I fancy Andy Schleck ew at 9/1 as the best value bet at the moment.
Any other dark horses out there (apart from Black Beauty)........
ps If want a REAL punt £100 will make you a millionaire if you put it on Mark Cavendish to win the overall !
Stone
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Wiggins is looking in top form at the moment. We got him at 8s a few months back. The worry is that he has peaked too early.
My money will be on Garmin Barracuda in the TTTs. They were different class in the Giro. (EDIT - having just seen the schedule, there isnt a TTT in it this year, so ignore that)
Having said that Hesjedal looked in top form in the Giro. 66/1 to win the TdF. Now that much be worth an e/w bet.
Would be interested to see the odds on Scarponi, who came 4th in the Giro.
Wouldnt touch the Shlecks with a barge pole, both seem to be struggling for form.
(and as a disclaimer, everything I seem to touch betting wise fails miserably at the moment, so would suggest doing the opposite, am half expecting Wiggins to fall and break a collar bone like last year!)
It will be interesting to see if Cav can win the green jersey this year without his HTC lead out train, personally I dont think Sky have the same edge in the last 500 meters but we will have to wait and see.
Agree with you about the Shlecks Johnboy, their form is in backward mode at the moment
Roll on the 30th
It's about time Nibali came up with the goods, not much so far this season but might punt him e/w for podium finish.
Wiggo's retention of the Criterium can only be a good thing, I don't think he's peaked to early, the Sky team have done a great job up to now and long may it continue.
Bring it on.
Like the sight of Cavendish's arse as he rockets past? I doubt it will happen this year.
Wiggins: If he does not win it this year he never will as the parcour ( course) really suits him, lots of TT and the mountains are easier than previous so I would pick him to win it hands down…..
Schleck: Has not even finished a race yet this year, well off form, too much TT for him ( big weakness which he has not improved on) plus lots of infighting with Bryneel at Radioshack…DO NOT EVEN PLACE HIM TOP 10 !!!
Evans: Will probably come second to Wiggo, coming into form. Stronger in the mountains than wiggo but not quite as good as him in the TT.
Outsiders for a podium.
Really fancy Tom Danielson (150/1) to place third behind Evans. Good all-round Yank coming into good form and a cracking outside bet….or Van Den Broueck (20/1)…..or Gesink (33/1). Both these guys good all-rounders may be worth a flutter…
Hesjedal- may be a bit too much for him to win the Giro and Tour.
Scarponi- not in the same league, may make top 10 but that’s it…..
Hope that helps some of you
http://road.cc/content/news/59868-breaking-andy-schleck-reportedly-out-tour-de-france-broken-vertebra
If Brad nails the TTs and doesn't come off, he'll win it
I dont know enough about cycling to understand how the team dynamics works.
For the TT it'll be all about Wiggo
Wiggins now in at 6/4. He'll end up evens at this rate.
Let's hope the pressures of winning expectation don't affect any of these guys in the same way.
RIP
RIP Tom
Breakfast for the team was unbeleivable and I take my hat off to them how they do that each day.
Starters - One large bowl of plain, boiled rice with an omlette and what looked to be half a bottle of ketchup (for taste presumably). Followed by copius amounts of bread, muesli, jam and marmalade. Lots of porridge.
Not content with the contents of their own table, they raided the 'public' breakfast table of all the cake they could get their hands on, then finished off with a small amount of parma ham and eggs.
I don't think I could get on my bike after that lot, let alone cycle 150k+
The 1998 tour did start in Dublin. It looks like ob Luik is finally coming around after all these years.
Plus look out for Froome, I don't know how well he has done this year but he was immense in the Veulta last year and destroyed Wiggins on some of the climbs.
Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) won todays stage just beating Ben Swift from Sky.
overall rui da costa has the lead (yellow jersey) just ahead of frank schleck.
Nibali, has no chance imo. Like him as a rider, but Liquigas never seem to prepare or support him right. He should have gone to Sky when he negotiated with them after his great 2009 tour. Understandably he wanted to stay in an Italian team, just that the whole team is geared towards Basso and he get's much less support.
I'd love to see Froome got top five, he's such a great rider to watch right from his early days at Barloworld when he attacked on nasty Giro climbs. He's incidentally worth a cheaky bet at 30 to 1.
Tony Martin must be gutted having to change his bike.
Wiggo will be well happy with that.
What will Cavendish do in this year's Tour? The Olympic road race is less than a week after the Tour finishes and it seems he's going to retain a bit for that race.
http://www.letour.fr/2012/TDF/COURSE/us/le_parcours.html
It doesn't look like being a physical Tour this year - unsurprising with the Olympics just around the corner and most of the famous mountain stages are getting the year off.
The Olympics are only every four years and will only be here once in his lifetime. I reckon that's his focus this year.
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No top road cyclist will be aiming just for the Olympic road race. It's a sprinter's race and all sprinters would prefer a TDF stage win over the Olympics. TDF stage wins gets you contracts and pays your domestiques, Olympics do very little for your career. He's slimmed down and going for intermediates.
As for Cav he has said that his aim for the tour is to help Wiggins win the GC and for himself to try and pick a few stage wins. He was the only rider in Beijing who didn't pick up a medal for team GB and has said that his main aim for this season is to get gold at the games.
7 seconds difference??
nuff said.
Wiggins looked comfortable but didn't have any team members around him to help him which I thought was strange.
Stated as the best rider for a generation.
he looked good in the time trial. if he didn't fall of he would be up amongst the top 3. then he wins yesterdays. I see why people have been talking about him. not sure about his celebration crossing the line though.
having a look at the tour website, they have got a competition to win singed jerseys and a couple of tickets. so i think yeah i'll enter that. only problem when you try and put a post code in it doesn't except it. due to me living in England i guess. which is poor. what's the point of having it on an English written website if you can enter if you live in England. This is what you could win if you were french. but your not. haha. racists.