Bradley Wiggins (above) is still an overwhelming favourite for the Tour De France after one of the most eventful days yet was eventually negotiated with typical expertise by his team mates at Sky, who had looked very cosy until late in the day, when the Col Du Molard saw several attacks launched by Vincenzo Nibali, who himself is an expert descended, and then Cadel Evans. Both attacks were fended off with ease though, and the main worry was when Chris Froome kickd clear of Wiggns, who began to struggle, but he waited for Wiggins and brought him back to within a second of Nibali and Jurgen Van Den Broeck. The biggest loser was Cadel Evans, who had already looked weak when unable to keep up with Teejay Van Gardenen after his first attack lost a further one minute 26 seconds to Wiggins in the general classification after popping on the final climb and now stands three minutes 19 seconds behind the overall race leader.
Today’s stage looks to be a quiet day, with the riders at
the time of writing having gone 156KM out of 226KM, and a 9 man a group having a 1:16 minute lead.
Those riders are Robert Kiserlovski (Astana), Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r-La
Mondiale), Yaroslav Popovych (RadioShack-Nissan), Cyril Gautier (Europcar),
Kristjan Koren (Liquigas-Cannondale), David Millar (Garmin-Sharp), Maxime Bouet
(Ag2r-La Mondiale), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis, Le Crédit en Ligne), Vladimir Gusev
(Katusha), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha) and Nicki Sorensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff
Bank), and Egoi Martínez (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
Martinez is now at the front of the group attacking the Col
Du Granier and you can still get 33’s on him, which is not bad considering the
form he has climbing the mountains, and the fact that he should be able to give
himself a breather makes him a very attractive choice, while Robert
Kiserklovski is nicely positioned in the break and can be gotten at around 21’s,
which seems silly given that Astana have had riders in nearly every single Breakaway
at the finish this year.
Those who are alert enough to the Twitter of this blog -
@KeejayOV – will already be on Sylvain Chavanel, and while it’s a bit of a disappointment
that he’s not in the breakaway, they could well come back to him and his mix of
speed and stamina – shown by the fact he was a creditable fourth in the time
trial behind Wiggins, Froome and Cancellara, but with Wiggins and Froome playing
chess with the yellow jersey and Cancellara off home for family reasons, he
could arguably be the quickest man out there and a stiff finish is sure to help
matters for him today. At the time of writing he’s either losing ground (said to have been dropped by the Peloton) or
pacing himself off the second climb but if it’s the latter than 150/1 is too
big for his chances – and remember that tomorrow is Bastille day, so he is sure
to want a big attack then if not today.
Advice
1 pt each/way Sylvain Chavanel (150/1 Paddy Power)
1 pt each/way Egoi Martinez (33/1 Bet Victor)
1 pt each/way Robert Kiserklovski (20/1 Bet Victor)
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