Cycling Betting

For over 100 years, there is one fixture that captures the imagination and attention of the whole world. It is not the only country-wide cycling event to take place, there are in fact several. But the Tour de France is the one that everyone takes notice of, not just those who enjoy cycling betting. For 23 days in July, 22 teams of riders take to the French landscape, passing through the Alps and Pyrenees and finishing in front of rapturous crowds in Paris.

However, the sport has a number of problems, not least of which is long and rich history of cheating, which we will look at in more detail below. But one of the other problems, one that continues to be a thorn in the paw of the French organisers, is that a British team has dominated proceedings for close to a decade now, and they seem to be unable to do anything about it. If you are thinking of cycling betting and your chosen rider is not a member of Team Sky, then you may want to reconsider.

Team Sky

In 2009, British broadcaster BSkyB was looking for a sport to sponsor. A Premiere League football team would not have been right – they were searching for something where they could really make an impact and be a positive force for British sport. They settled on cycling, injecting £1 million into the British team that had shown a great deal of promise at the 2008 Olympics. With the 2012 Olympics to be based in London, this was a great opportunity to start building the sport. They also made a road team that would compete in the big road-race competitions, the Grand Tours of Spain, Italy and France. Their stated aim was to have a British driver win the Tour de France within 5 years.

They began with smaller cycling tournaments around the world. Australia, Qatar and Oman were all testing grounds for the fledgling team. Many people did not know it, but there were giants hiding within their ranks, men who would go on to become household names around the UK. People like Chris Froome, Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas. They took their first step to achieving their goals at Stage 6 of the Tour de France, where they got their first stage win. Sadly, a series of crashes sent some of their biggest names out of the Tour, and the dream would not be a reality that year.

However, Bradley Wiggins won the tour the next year, with Chris Froome coming in second. Froome would win it again the next year (having reached Sky’s goal of winning twice over by now). A run of bad luck and crashes put them out of the 2014 Tour, but they came back stronger to win again in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Six out of the last seven Tours have been won by Britain’s Team Sky. Will the new measures put a dent in their dominance? It’s something to consider when cycling betting.

How to stop Sky?

As often happens when one team or individual dominates an entire sport: organisers change the rules in an attempt to make it fairer. The 2019 Tour will be ‘the highest in history’, with several gruelling mountain stages. However, these will not be the steepest category 1 climbs, but rather category 2, to encourage attacks. There are also plans to remove ‘power meters’, devices which record a rider’s output while they ride and give them an idea of where they stand. In 2018, the size of teams was reduced from 9 to 8, which is also believed to be an attempt to break Sky’s dominance.

The 2019 race has been designed to be harder to control from a team perspective. The hill climbs, time trails, flat races and other bonuses on offer are an attempt to open things up, and for those teams that are trying to control the race, it will make things that much harder. But the real impediment to Team Sky taking another tour is time. Chris Froome is 34 years old, and while he is the team’s climbing specialist, it will be a hard race for him to win. It will take a huge effort from Geraint Thomas to win as well, given that he will be relying on Froome’s support. This might be the year that Team Sky’s dominance is broken. But if cycling betting is any indication, Chris Froome is still the favourite to win, with Geraint Thomas close behind.

The Dirtiest Game

During the 1924 tour, an interview with Henri Pélissier, the 1923 winner, turned unusually frank as the rider showed the journalist all the tricks he used to keep going. Cocaine, chloroform and three boxes of amphetamines. During the 1950s, Doctor Pierre Dumas, who formerly worked with martial artists, came onto a scene where riders were taking increasingly desperate risks in order to find an edge. Healing hands, bee stings, toad extracts and strange balms were all doing the rounds. Huffing ether or taking strychnine and nitro-glycerine were also common practices.

Things started to go bad. In 1955 French rider Jean Malléjac collapsed in a drug-induced haze and nearly died. In 1960, Roger Rivière fell down a ravine and broke his spine; he had so much painkiller in his system, that his hands could not move the brakes quick enough. That same year, Knud Enemark Jensen collapsed and died due to an overdose.

Favourites and Underdogs

When cycling betting, the odds are rarely as close as you might expect. Given the length of the race and the number of different environments participants must ride through, it is difficult to put all your faith in a single rider, no matter what their form. Chris Froome is the 2019 favourite but currently has odds of 11/5. This makes cycling betting a relatively high return form of gambling. Of the 72 riders listed to be taking part at present, only six or so of them have short odds. As you go down the field, it’s not long before you start to get to riders with 32/1 odds, then 125/1. Pretty soon you are looking at outsiders with 2000/1 odds. The chances of an upset like this are incredibly slim, but it shows cycling betting can be incredibly lucrative.