Tour De France - Stage 17 [Blagnac - Brive-la-Gaillarde]

It’s been seen as inevitability for a while but yesterday rubber stamped the procession of Bradley Wiggins into the yellow jersey, him and his team-mate Chris Froome crossing the top of the penultimate climb of the day with a significant lead over their only remaining rival, the Italian Vincenzo Nibali. In fact, such was their dominance over the other remain contenders – in a stage which ended up being dominated by the best of the best barring breakway winner Alejandro Valverde – That Chris Froome may well feel that he could have won had he not checked his speed to help Wiggins up the final climb of the day, in accordance with quite a few observers.

Today’s stage of the Tour De France is classified as a flat stage but it’s hard to see why it merits that distinction with four categorised climbs amongst its ranks. The first third of the day is flat but the middle section is distinctly lumpy, and it’s just ripe for a breakway today with teams such as Euskaltel, Lampre, AG2R, Cofidis, Saur, Katusha, Omega and GreenEdge all looking set to leave empty handed given tomorrow’s time trial is a Sky benefit and that one of Griepel or Sagan should take the final day’s stage in Paris.

A breakway is surely set to take the day and with plenty to look back on in this year’s tour, there are clues as for potential winners. It’s a stage that needs both speed and stamina, so the likes of Pierrick Federigo, who got into a break when sprinters were expected to dominate and easily held off Christan Van Der Velde, looks to have a chance if getting into the break for FDJ Big Mat, who have had an excellent tour and consistently get men into the breaks without fail.

Orica Green Edge have been one of the teams without a tour win despite getting Goss to finish in the 1^st three on 3 occasions, but both have men in Simon Gerrans and Michael Albasini that have the speed to get into breaks and also the ability to climb – the latter is a Milan San Remo winner – and at 22 and 25/1 respectively they might well be worth adding to the portfolio.

And last but not least, with 4 climbs today, Michael Morkov of Sakobank might be worth having, given that he featured in the most important escapes of the first three stages, where he gained enough points to lead the Polka dot jersey before Chris Froome took it. 

Phillipe Gilbert might be one of the men to prosper from today’s bunch and he’s not without a turn of foot (he has been in poor form) while Astana’s Alexander Vinokourov will give you fun and games, although whether he can win or not is a different matter.  Of all the sprinters, Peter Sagan - the best climber of the bunch and the best uphill finisher in a sprint too – makes by far the most appeal and he might be worth a saver in running if the Peloton stay together as there will be few faster at the finish.

Advice

1 pt each/way Pierrick Fedrigo (33/1 Betfred)

1 pt each/way Simon Gerrand (25/1 Boylesports)

1 pt each/way Michael Albasini (22/1 Boylesports)



1 pt each/way Michael Morkov (28/1 Blue Sq)