Battlelines Drawn for Tour de France’s Final Week
The 2021 Tour de France peloton took its second rest day on Monday meaning just six more days of racing remain. Tadej Pogacar, the defending champion, is the bookies’ favorite at an unbackable 1/12. He has more than a five-minute lead over the pack, it looks like an unassailable advantage. But the race for the remaining podium steps, awarded on the Champs-Élysées, is wide-open.
Mark Cavendish takes stage 13 of the 2021 Tour de France. ©Deceuninck – Quick-Step Cycling Team / Getty Images
The Race for Places
At the conclusion of Sunday’s stage 15, the prohibitive betting favorite told the waiting press: “Today they tried to attack but I felt good, unfortunately for them because it would have been a good day for them to make me crack.
“After today, I don’t know what scares me. Today was one of the hardest days. Yesterday was super-hot, that was the scariest thing for me before the Tour. I’m not confident in the heat but after this week where every day was super-hot I feel more comfortable. A lot can happen but I’m really confident going into the third week”.
At the outset, it was former ski jumper Primoz Roglic who was expected to push Tadej Pogacar all the way to Paris. Heavy crashes and subsequent injury saw him retire before the start of stage eight. Another big-name cyclist, Peter Sagan, has also been forced to retire. A knee injury led to his abandonment before stage 11.
2018 Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas and seven-time Grand Tour winner Chris Froome are both soldiering on despite injury from heavy crashes during the early days of the race. More than 90 minutes adrift of the leader, both are out of medal contention.
It is the current third-placed Jonas Vingegaard who the leading online bookmakers like most. Betway considers him a 2/5 chance to claim a medal of some color in its betting list. Rigoberto Uran – runner-up in the 2017 Tour – is currently sitting second in the overall standings 14 seconds ahead of Vingegaard. He is top-priced 8/11 in the same market at one or two of the top sites.
Richard Carapaz, fourth in the standings and currently just one second adrift of a podium position, is 4/5 to claim a medal of some type at the race’ conclusion on Sunday.
Poised for Dotty Excitement
Remarkably there is an even closer race for the polka dot jersey, better known as the King of the Mountains. Here no less than seven riders are priced under 10/1 to take this award which is based on points. This accolade will be decided by Thursday afternoon as the final three stages of the 2021 Tour are either flat or a time trial.
In the current standings Wouter Poels (5/2), leads with 74 points. Canadian Michael Woods (7/1) sits second with 66 points. He is followed by a pair on 64 points, Nairo Quintana (5/2) and Wout van Aert (7/2).
This competition is clearly well-poised to produce plenty of excitement in the coming days. To add extra spice to proceedings, it would appear the bookies are predicting the race leading Tadej Pogacar may attempt to stamp his authority on the field.
The Slovenian currently has just 26 points in this category. Nevertheless, the major online sportsbooks rate his chances of heading this category at the race end as just 7/1.
Glorious Green for Cavendish
The biggest story of the 2021 Tour de France has been the exploits of Mark Cavendish. Drafted into the Deceuninck-QuickStep squad at the 11th hour, the veteran has won three stages on this year’s tour. In doing so the popular sprinter from the Isle of Man has equalled Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 Tour de France stage victories, which was set in 1975.
Well clear in the Points Classification, Cavendish is just 1/3 to keep the green jersey he first put on after victory in stage 4. The so-called ‘Manx Missile’ has two more genuine opportunities to surpass Merckx’s outright record. Those are Thursday’s 207-kilometer flat stage and the traditional concluding sprint up the Champs-Élysées on Sunday.
Given a long list of injuries and a well-publicizedbattle with depression which almost led to his retirement in 2018, few would not be moved if the 36-year-old won either stage.
Interestingly, Cavendish is the bookies’ 5/2 favorite to win the 2021 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. He took that accolade in 2011 and it has since been won by cyclists Bradley Wiggins (2012) and Geraint Thomas (2018).
