11-1 Nibali is Tour tip

Reporter: Keith McHugh
Date published: 04 July 2014


SPORTS BETTING: THIS year’s Tour de France has its “Grand Depart” – or start, as the rest of us call it - in England on Saturday.

The opening stage from Leeds to Harrogate still puzzles me, given the race title, but there is no doubt that cycling-mad Britain will turn out in vast numbers to see the sport’s superstars.

Your correspondent won’t be among them - but I will be in Paris to see the end of the race on the Champs-Elysees on July 27, though I suspect I’ll need a tall laddder to see over the assembled legions of cycling fans.

The question on everyone’s lips is whether Britain’s Chris Froome can dominate, as he did 12 months ago. He might even have won in 2012 but for Sir Bradley Wiggins being the leader of the team.

So this is a rider completely in tune with the demands of the ultimate cycle race. But even-money favourite Froome hasn’t been in quite the same form this season; a fall a few weeks ago could have dented his confidence.

If Froome fails to show his best, then dual champion Alberto Contador of Spain is the man most likely to benefit. The 15-8 second favourite won in 2007 and 2009 and was first home in 2010, but was stripped of the title for a drugs offence.

The value bet might be Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali, who was third to Wiggins and Froome two years ago, and won the Giro D’Italia in 2013 when he missed Le Tour.

A daring descender, Nibali is 11-1 third favourite and can certainly be in the shake-up if he can cope with the ascents in the mountains.

The Alps and Pyrenees will favour Contador, who is 7-2 to be crowned King of the Mountains, while the green jersey for the leader of the Points Classification will probably go to 4-7 shot Peter Sagan of Slovakia, the winner for the last two years.

Our own Mark Cavendish is 11-2 for that section, but I expect him to concentrate on winning sprint finishes.


THE British Grand Prix is at Silverstone on Sunday and a huge crowd is sure to roar for home favourite Lewis Hamilton.

The Briton’s season-long spat with Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg has been manna from heaven for the sporting tabloids, but I suspect it has taken our man’s eye off the ball to an extent.

Still, on a Silverstone track he knows so well, Lewis ought to justify 8-11 race favouritism. Rosberg is 7-4 second favourite and it’s 25-1 bar.



RECOMMENDATION: Vincenzo Nibali, e.w (first three) in Tour de France, 11-1 (Paddy Power).