It is 8 weeks later than usual, but the Tour de France starts on Saturday and I am incredibly excited for this 3 week race.
I love my cycling and hand-in-hand with that goes betting and although my stakes are a lot smaller than rugby betting for example, I probably get more enjoyment out of betting on the Tour de France than any other sporting event.
I must stress that betting on cycling is not good for the old ticker as there are so many things that can go wrong ranging from mechanicals, accidents, team tactics and in this particular Tour de France, COVID-19 could also rear its ugly head. There is a very real chance the race won’t reach Paris and for this reason my strategy will be to focus on the stages and only nibble at some big prices in some of the classification markets.
My first bet will be Miguel Angel Lopez to Podium at 7/1, Lopez showed some promising signs towards the end of the Dauphine and I think he may benefit from flying under the radar as the big favourites do battle on what looks like an incredibly tough route. Lopez is not so afraid to attack when the time is right and if he can stay in contention to the 3rd week I give him an outside chance of victory here. His podium price of 7/1 is just enough to tempt me.
In the Green Jersey race, Peter Sagan is a massive favourite and if he is anything close to top form it is hard to see him being beat as there are not a lot of sprinters in the field and the one man who could probably take him, Wout Van Aert, is going to be working for his team leader. That being said, Sagan hasn’t been on the greatest of form and I will look to beat him at some stage over the 3 weeks.
For now though a speculative play on Matteo Trentin at 63/1. Trentin is capable of getting over the climbs and hopefully taking some points out on the course although we would need him to do something early to even think of contesting for Green.
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Twitter: @BrentGraham.
This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 27 August 2020.
Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and sends a free weekly e-mail list just CLICK HERE to register