Having read 'My Time' last week, about Bradley Wiggins' 2012, I was curious to have a look at his odds for this years events, following a couple of his statements.
Indeed Le Tour is going to be a two horse race this year according to the bookies between Contador (6/4) who is currently a marginal favorite over Chris Froome (7/4) even at this early stage. Wiggins is 16/1 with Paddy Power and despite his yearning to win the Giro this year (you can't get much better than evens on that), a podium finish in the Tour de France must still be achievable @ 1/4 odds.
Did anyone get on any of these bets early doors, as I certainly missed the boat!
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As for Brad at the Giro, if he can put some serious time in on the TT on Stage 8, he'll probably have enough for the mountains the following week, and then finish it off on the second TT
Froome is amazingly strong in the mountains, brutal turn of pace, almost like he's TT ing the climb.
Someone attacked in the CI, Porte could not respond & Froome went for it. There was no value for team sky in letting the other two attacking riders disappear and win the race. In theory Froome could have sat up later on, but why should he.
Froome appears to be the best rider, providing Sky stick by their decision to make him leader, then he should be favourite to win the tour. Perhaps a Sky one -two again with Porte.
If you're looking for outsiders, Jurgen Van Den Broeck at 50/1 is a good shout for a place. Nibali at 40/1 too.
BTW, if you can find Cav's interview from today, it's amazing, proper strop on.
http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/videozone/sporten/wielrennen/MV_130403_SP_reax_Cavendish
in- fighting amongst the sky team this year.
As for Spartacus he will never be on the podium in the tdf as he doesn't do well in the mountains and is mostly a pure classics rider. But yes the last bit of the tour of Flanders was incredible and he'll probably do really well in the TT's at this year's tour if he goes.
I'm also looking forward to a Sagan V Cav battle as they'll both have proper lead out trains this year so the battle for green could be interesting.
We've got our flights booked, heading to Toulouse in early July, expect it to be even more packed than usual this year
Taking the missus for 4 days near Avignon whilst taking in the Ventoux stage....cannot wait.
What would be nice would be a British winner starting the race in Leeds in 2014.
That race is brutal!
The last winner of the maglia rosa and the maillot jaune in the same season was the late and great Marco Pantani, a great cyclist and climber, but he was also artificially aided by industrial quantities of EPO.
Hard to tell what happened to him in this clip, certainly Cav came from a long way back, but on a straight flat finish this was ideal for him and he got out of jail, but his team certainly left him with a lot of work to do and he had to navigate his way around Steegmans.
There was some disquiet earlier in the season that for all their investment in a strong squad and in particular in hiring Cavendish that OPQ were short of a dedicated lead out team. A bit like signing a star centre-forward but not investing any money in a decent midfield to get him the ball. From the evidence of the video they haven't put that right.
A short stage and mostly flat although with enough twists and turns and street furniture to put the emphasis on team-work.
Anyway, a good win for Sky by 9 seconds, Bradley Wiggins is now in second overall and has 14 seconds on Hesjedal and Nibali while Mark Cavendish has to make do with the red jersey for being best points rider.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/22426361