On Saturday as has become tradition in our house we had a big gathering with family and friends to watch the Durban July and Tour de France. 

I always make a point of getting my mates involved in a sport bet or two, something they would not normally do throughout the balance of the year and on Saturday I was very confident that the boys would be going home a few rand better off. 

I had identified some great value in the opening time trial of the Tour de France and took a multiple at odds of 11/1 which required 4 riders to beat 4 other riders on the stage. I offered shares in the bet for R25 each and they were quickly snapped up as the lads saw how confident I was. 

Having previously announced that we would crack open a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue (a gift I had received) after our bet arrived I removed it from its wrapping when the first leg cruised home and proposed we celebrate early. 

As the 2nd and 3rd legs arrived in style we sipped the smooth liquid and gave each other congratulatory taps on the backs and a few high 5’s as we awaited confirmation of our win. 

All that we needed was the big Russian Denis Menchov a time trial specialist to beat light weight climber Carlos Sastre a man who always struggles in this discipline. As Menchov set off from the starting ramp the commentators were talking about his stunning win in the Giro time trial just a month before and the fact that he would be targeting a stage win or at least a podium finish on this day. 

Glasses clunked together as we waited for the first time check only for our smiles to disappear as Menchov went through in around 42nd position having lost over 40 seconds to the leaders in 7km. 

We watched in horror as Sastre duly lost time to all of the major players with one exception being Menchov who had delivered his worst time trial performance in living memory. 

The whisky already open there was no going back and we drank to our good health instead but lingering in the back of my mind was the fact that we had been somehow robbed of our big win due to my starting the celebrations before the job had been done.

This article first appeared in the Citizen CitiGaming section on Thursday 09 July 2009 

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and presents a sports betting radio show every Saturday morning at 07h30 on 1485AM Radio Today or Channel 169 of the DSTV Audio Bouquet. 

You can follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/brentgraham or get on his mailing list by dropping him a line at brent@goodforthegame.co.za

Goodforthegame will be posting betting previews on every Tour de France stage as well as the Currie Cup