The Tour de France has traditionally been my favourite event of the year and one that I really enjoy betting on, although I keep my stakes a lot smaller than I do on rugby. There was a time, many years ago, when I used to take annual leave to watch the mountain stages, but these days I just record the stage and stay off all social media so that I can watch it without knowing the result later that night.

I backed last year’s winner, Pogacar at 13/1 and still have fond memories of that incredible final time trial when he put big time into poor Primoz Roglic. The pair are back this year, but now Pogacar is 17/10 favourite with Roglic trading at round the 22/10 mark.

They look head and shoulders above most of their competitors, but Team Ineos also have a strong hand with the next 3 riders in the betting. Their tactic is usually to have the strongest rider and to ride defensively and nullify attacks, but this year will be different and they will have to use their 3 contenders to try and disrupt the teams of Pogacar and Roglic.

My tip for yellow is Pogacar at 17/10. There are plenty of betting opportunities on the Tour de France including Stage Betting where Van Der Poel is currently the 5/2 favourite to win Stage 1.

One of my favourite jerseys to bet on is the Points Classification Green Jersey where Peter Sagan dominated up until last year when he was beaten by Sam Bennett. Bennett is sadly out, but Sagan (28/10) will have plenty of competition from the likes of Caleb Ewan the 21/10 favourite and Demare also a 28/10 shot. This year’s Tour de France is sprint heavy which is why Ewan is the favourite for this classification and he should collect big points in the bunch gallops.

There are also points out on the route though and some stages which will be too tough for Ewan, but perhaps in the range of the likes of a Sagan or even Sonny Colbrelli who at 7/1 is my value play in this market.

If you are a Tour de France fan look out for my daily previews on the Goodforthegame You Tube Channel and I am sure like me you will fall in love with this race over the next three weeks.

Twitter: @BrentGraham.

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 24 June 2021.

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and sends a free weekly e-mail list just CLICK HERE to register