The Tour De France 2007 begins on Saturday 7 July with the time trial race around the streets of central London.
To win this epic race, the riders will cover a distance of 3,550km, including 11 flat stages, six mountain stages, one medium mountain stage and two individual time trials.
It is no wonder the overall winner will be rewarded with a 450,000 Euro windfall from the total prize pool of 3.2 million Euros.
The Tour de France is arguably the most physically demanding of all athletic sports. The distance and time the rider’s endure is the equivalent to running a marathon almost every day of the week for almost three weeks and the vertical distance covered over the Alps and Pyrenees is the same as climbing three Mount Everests!
Following the time trials in London, Sunday will see the riders cover 203km in Canterbury and Monday they ride from Dunkirk to Grand, covering 168.5km.
Then it’s France on Tuesday for the main part of the race, culminating on Sunday 29 July with circuits around the French capital of Paris.
The race will be closely scrutinised following the contriversy surrounding last year’s winner, Floyd Landis, who is awaiting the verdict of an investigation into doping.
Alexandre Vinokourov of team Astana is the bookmakers favourite, with his previous best showings as third overall in 2003 and fifth overall two years ago. The Kazakh rider won last year’s Vuelta a Espana, which covered a distance of 3,192km.
He is closely followed in the betting by Andreas Kloden, also of Astana and who finished third overall in last year’s Tour De France. The bookies make Alejandro Valverde of team Casse d’Epargne third favourite despite not having any record to speak of in the race. He has, however, won the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and the Vuleta a Murcia tournaments in preparation for the Tour De France.
In betting on the race, you are not restricted to just picking out the overall winner of the event, you can also bet on who will win each stage of the race, green jersey winner, polka-dot jersey winner, prologue winner and whether a rider will achieve a top three or top six finish.
Selected Odds
Alexandre Vinokourov 3.0 (Paddy Power - £25 in Free Bets!)
Andreas Kloden 6.5 (Bet365 - £100 in Free Bets!)
Alejandro Valverde 6.5 (Ladbrokes - £20 in Free Bets!)
Carlos Sastre 13.0 (Betfred - £25 in Free Bets!)
Cadel Evans 15.0 (Sporting Odds - £100 in Free Bets!)
Levi Leipheimer 15.0 (Bet365 - £100 in Free Bets!)
Denis Menchov 19.0 (Paddy Power - £25 in Free Bets!)
Frank Schleck 17.0 (Ladbrokes - £20 in Free Bets!)
Andrey Kashechkin 30.0 (Bet365 - £100 in Free Bets!)
Alberto Contador 34.0 (Sporting Odds - £100 in Free Bets!)
Green Jersey Winner
Robbie McEwen 2.50 (Betfred - £25 in Free Bets!)
Tom Boonen 5.0 (Sporting Odds - £100 in Free Bets!)
Thor Hushovd 6.0 (Paddy Power - £25 in Free Bets!)
Oscar Freire 12.0 (Sporting Odds - £100 in Free Bets!)
Alessandro Petacchi 13.0 (Ladbrokes - £20 in Free Bets!)
Polka Dot Jersey Winner
Michael Rasmussen 1.95 (Bet365 - £100 in Free Bets!)
Christophe Moreau 7.0 (Ladbrokes - £20 in Free Bets!)
Jose Angel Gomez Marchante 13.0 (Betfred - £25 in Free Bets!)
Juan Jose Cobo 15.0 (Bet365 - £100 in Free Bets!)
Alberto Contador 21.0 (Ladbrokes - £20 in Free Bets!)
