2019 Tour de France Bet Preview
21 Stages: July 6 – July 28, 2019
The 106th edition of the Tour de France will begin with the Grand Depart in Brussels, Belgium. This starting point was selected in honour of the great Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx as this year’s race will be the 50th anniversary of his first Tour de France win.
The race is the best known of cycling’s three grand tours, along with the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana, and it will see the riders race through 21 stages and cover a total of 2,150 miles through French cities, villages, and countryside.
Teams
The 2019 edition of the race will see the 18 UCI WorldTeams automatically entered into the race. These 18 teams will be joined by four other teams from the second-tier UCI Professional Continental series that are invited into the field by the organizers of the event. The 22 teams have all competed in the race before, with names such as Astana, Team Ineos, and AG2R La Mondiale standing out.
The yellow jersey for the general classification leader is the most well known, and most sought after prize in the event. The winner of this jersey is the overall race winner as he has taken the least time to complete all 21 stages. In addition this jersey there are winners for King of the Mountains (polka dot), sprinting (green, where Peter Sagan at 0.45 is the clear favourite), and young rider (white), along with a best team award. This means that most riders coming into the race will know which of the various prizes they will either be trying to win or trying to help their teammates win.
The Course
One of the cool things about the Tour de France is how the course changes every year. While the finish of the race always sees the peloton enter Paris, the stages between the Grand Depart and the French capital can be set up by the organizers to feature any kind of race they want.
In 2019 they have decided that this will be a Tour for the climbers.
There are only 27km of individual time trials on the whole course and even then much of that is hilly. Add in that the only team time trial is a modest 28km on Stage Two and you can see that this isn’t a profile that will suit those who want to take time off when racing one on one with the clock and then defend in the mountains.
Instead, this version of the tour has five mountain top finishes. This includes a 33km slog up to the top of the highest ski resort in Europe, a climb that will have even the best mountain goats in the field struggling to compete at the head of the field.
Best Bets
The other weird aspect of the Tour this year is that while the surprise 2018 winner (Geraint Thomas) returns, he is the only one of the top four from last year in the field.
Runner up Tom Dumoulin has a knee injury – one that he probably didn’t feel the need to push given how the course works against his time trial skills – while third-placed Chris Froome suffered a compound fracture of the femur in June. Add in that Primoz Roglic is skipping the Tour after riding in the Giro, and you have a field that looks to be as open as it has been in years.
While Thomas, priced at 2.75, looks to come into the race as the lead rider on Team Ineos it is actually one of his teammates who is our pick to win the race. Columbian rider Egan Bernal is priced at 1.90 and he is the type of young, out and out climber that will excel on this course. He is in great form having just won the week long Tour de Suisse, and he will have too much endurance in his legs for the other climbers and team leaders. Bernal is also 0.35 to win the Young Rider jersey with BetXchange.
