The Tour de France is the one cycle race that most punters will have a bet on if they are that way inclined. It gets maximum TV coverage so you get to see where your money is going and, of course, there are multiple markets to chose from. But are those once-a-year bettors missing a trick?
A couple of months before the Tour de France is the Giro d’Italia and that is just as big an event in its country. The Giro d’Italia was first contested in 1909 and was the original brainchild of Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport. The Giro is one of cycling’s three “Grand Tours” along with the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. There is wall-to-wall coverage on satellite TV for anyone who wants it and an outstanding bet this year in Nairo Quintana.
Chris Froome, three-times Tour de France winner, doesn’t race in the Giro d’Italia and may be wise not to embroil himself in the investigation into anti-doping and testing procedures at Team Sky. UK Anti-Doping chief executive Nicole Sapstead has been highly critical of Team Sky and its practices, and supremo Sir Dave Brailsford has admitted that mistakes were made. Froome has been defending his boss this week but the media is sensing blood and all of the controversy is not helping preparations for the season’s big races.
Quintana won the Giro d’Italia in 2014 and had the perfect preparation for this year’s race when winning a second Tirreno-Adriatico earlier this week. The Colombian Movistar rider is now only a best 13/8 with William Hill to wear the Corsa Rosa again in May but time may tell that those are generous odds.
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Astana’s Vincenzo Nibali, the defending champion, is next best in the betting at 7/1 with the race getting under way at Alghero on May 5. It ends three weeks later in Milan after a circuit of the Monza motor racing circuit.
Giro d’Italia Current Best odds
Nairo Quintana (13/8), Vincenzo Nibali (7/1), Steven Kruijswijk (10/1), Mikel Landa (11/1), Tom Dumoulin and Bauke Mollema (14/1), Esteban Chavez and Fabio Aru (16/1), Thibault Pinot (18/1), Ilnur Zakarin (20/1), Geraint Thomas (22/1), Rigoberto Uran and Adam Yates (25/1)
