2015 Tour De France predictions, tips, best odds and free bets

Friday, 03 July 2015 23:26
Written by David Bet

Chris Froome, Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana are the bookmakers' favourites to win the 2015 Tour De France. This year’s route has the potential to produce one of the most varied and gripping Tours in recent years. Who will win? Find here our Tour De France betting preview including tips (Winner, King of the Mountain, Young Rider and Points Classification, Head to Head and much more) with best odds, free bets and no deposit bonuses!

TOUR DE FRANCE 2015: BETTING PREVIEW The Tour celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Red Polka jersey and the emphasys is all on climbing this year! There are no less than seven mountains stages and five summit finishes on a 3,360km route starting in the Dutch city of Utrecht on 4 July and finishing in Paris on 26 July.

The 102nd running of the Tour starts in Utrecht in the Netherlands, the 21st time that the Tour has started abroad. The first stage is a ‘Prologue’, a short individual time trial over 13.7kms which is the only ITT of the race.

The 21 stages are categorised as follows by the official TDF website:

9 flat stages
3 hill stages
7 mountain stages with 5 altitude finishes
1 individual time-trial stage
1 team time-trial stage

Chris Froome recently won the Dauphine, finishing 10 seconds ahead of Tejay van Garderen and winning the final two mountain stages. He needs to avoid the first-week misfortunes that hobbled his challenge last year as he is perhaps the strongest all-rounder of the four. The one slight negative for Froome is the lack of time trial kilometers on the Tour De France route this year but he is a phenomenal climber too.

Nairo Quintana has only raced for four days in the past two months as he spent most of that spell altitude training on his home roads, just as he did before winning the Giro title last year. He started this season way back in January at the Tour de San Luis and has raced impressively since. Highlights include the overall victory at Tirreno Adriatico (where he defeated Nibali and Contador), 4th at the Tour of the Basque Country, and 8th at the Tour de Romandie. Quintana also started three races in Flanders during the spring Classics so as to acclimate himself to racing on cobblestones.

Alberto Contador won the Giro d'Italia at the end of May and returned to racing to win the Route du Sud in mid-June where he did beat Quintana in the queen stage. No one has completed the Giro-Tour double since Marco Pantani back in 1998. If there is a doubt it could surround whether his team-mates are as strong as that of the other favourites as despite his Giro win this year, he was often isolated some way from home on mountain stages.

Vincenzo Nibali led for a day at the Dauphiné, but ultimately didn't contend for victory. Anyway, he retained the Italian national crown few weeks ago showing a much improved condition. He struck a decisive blow during last year’s day on the cobbles (while pre-race favourite Chris Froome crashed out) so stage 4 to Cambrai, which features seven sectors of pavé, will again provide an important test. Furthermore, his Astana team are proven to have plenty of strength in depth when it comes to climbers who can look after their leader.

After the fab four, we have Thibaut Pinot, third overall last year. He only finished fourth in last week's Tour of Switzerland but the mountainous route will suit him. Pinot beat Froome, Nibali, and Quintana to win the toughest stage during the Tour of Romandie in May.

Team AG2R have Jean Christophe Peraud and Romain Bardet, who finished second and sixth respectively last year. Peraud doesn’s look nearly as strong as he did last year while while Bardet arrives in great condition as he put on a fantastic performance when he won the stage to Pra Loup in Dauphiné (the same stage the riders will do on stage 17 of the Tour)

Tejay Van Garderen proved to be in great condition in Dauphiné where he finished 2nd overall to Chris Froome after losing the yellow jersey on the last day of racing. The Amrican doesn’t have any top climbers to support him in the mountains but can count on Greg Van Avermaet and Daniel Oss on the cobblestones.

Joaquim Rodriguez has finished in the top 10 of a grand tour 10 times tn his career and he is an outside contender in this year’s mountainous Tour. His best result so far this season came in April, when he won two stages and the overall title at the difficult Tour of the Basque Country.

A dark horse could be Alberto Rui Costa. The Portuguese had an impressive season so far and could decide to run as a GC contender this year. We believe he can record a top 10 classification.