Couch Critic previews the 2021 edition of the Tour de France and nails up his best outright bets with @Olimp_SA
Tour de France 2021
It’s that time of the year when 184 grown men (none over 70kg’s of course) raid the roads of France over the space of three weeks in pursuit of coming away with a new yellow cycling shirt and a fluffy lion soft toy. It might sound a bit daft, but I can promise you it makes for intriguing viewing!
The Route
What you need to know about the route is that Time Trialling is back in fashion in France whilst mountain finishes have been reduced, with only three big summit finishes on the cards. The sprinters will arrive at the 2021 event with their (tiny) chests puffed out with the prospect of plenty sprint finishes.
As per usual plenty of the big mountain action is left for the second half of the race. The mythical Mount Ventoux will be raced on Stage 11 – the organisers like the mountain so much they decided to scale it twice on this stage – whilst the Pyrenees (as always) will go a long way in deciding the final pecking order during Stage 17 & 18. The final race decider will be the 30km flat-course race against the clock on the penultimate stage.
The Picks
Whilst all-you-can-eat diners (they probably call them le café’s in this part of the world right?) have little to fear from these supreme athletes, there is bound to be a fierce fight between the riders for a variety of prizes; stage honours, Top 10 overall results and of course the four prestigious jerseys. Let’s dive into some predictions / bets.
Points Classification Winner: Sonny Colbrelli @ 7.40
Tour de Sprint (as I like to call the 2021 edition) could deliver as many as 8 bunch sprint finishes. In the past Peter Sagan has based his Hulk-like success when it comes to green on his ability to get over the hills that the other pure sprinters can’t and then take more intermediate sprint points than others, as well as ensuring good results on punchy finishes. Sagan also has the supreme bike handling skill and natural instinct to navigate through those treacherous mad-dash moments in the peloton to consistently churn out Top 5 efforts whilst many of the other fast men are more “hit or miss”.
After being the dominant “Slo”man for the better part of the last decade the Slo-vakian has shifted to the background in favour of the big main event battle between the two Slo-venians and a duo of multi-talented Vans: Aert & Poel. The seven-time champ will still prove tough to dislodge due to his dogged persistence but I will chase the value with a play elsewhere.
I doubt we will see one pure sprinter dominate with a handful of stage wins. As such it brings the likes of Sagan back into the picture – guys who are better rover the hills and have persistence in each and every stage finish. I’ll throw a few paper animals at Sonny Colbrelli to be there and there abouts come Paris. The Italian is in superb form at the moment.
One has to back someone in the red-hot Bahrain squad considering their recent form and Poles look to offer a touch of value at this price. Getting towards the latter part of his career I hope he has one last strong push left in the tank.
King of the Mountains: Miguel Angel Lopez @ 25.00
On a parcourse that seems destined to favour those weirdos who like riding in skin-tight suits and alien-like helmets I reckon a pure-bred Columbian climber will be eyeing out the mountains like I check out the desert table at a buffet. With only a few summit finishes I would be surprised to see the breakaway have much success on the big point-scoring stages and as such the Polka Dot jersey could very likely go to someone in the GC mix. Superman Lopez is my caped crusader to take up the mantle of Polka-chaser in this Tour.
Overall: Top 3 – Rigoberto Uran @ 6.05
There is zero value at the top of the boards with Roglic and Pogacar expected to dominate. For mind the two of them might as well do a mano a mano battle up Mount Ventoux and the winner gets handed the maillot jaune and the 2021 Le Tour title. But for an interest I will back a man in good form right now. Uran doesn’t fear the challenge against the clock and with all the focus on Jumbo, Ineos and Pogacar he can just settle into the shadows and race his own race – hopefully popping up just in time to snatch a podium spot.
(Note, all odds quoted are subject to change)
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