Tour De France Stage 9 (TTT) predictions, tips, odds and free bets (July 12, 2015)

Sunday, 12 July 2015 08:46
Written by David Bet

The biggest test against the clock in this year's Tour De France will be the difficult 28km team time trial on Sunday, an interesting stage that will close an exciting first week. This article contains Tour De France STAGE 9 Temas Time Trial betting preview including free predictions and best odds, betting tips on Stage Winner and Head to Head, promotions and no deposit free bets!

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TOUR DE FRANCE STAGE 9 BETTING PREVIEW

The course is 28km long and brings the riders from Vannes to the cycling-mad city of Plumelec in the Breton heartland. This year’s Team Time-Trial is highly unusual for a number of reasons. First of all, it is held on a very hilly. The final climb of the Cote de Cadoual starts at 1.7 kilometres to go and averages out at 6.2 %. This will be a brutal end to what will be a pivotal stage of this year’s tour. But the biggest issue is the fact that it comes very late in the race and a lot of teams have lost several riders due to first week's crashes.

Riders like Cancellara and Tony Martin could have been a winning factor for their team but they both retired when wearing the yellow jersey.

The latest team time trial was held in Nice in 2013 when Orica-GreenEDGE beat Omega Pharma-Quick Step by less than a second on a very flat course.

But Orica GreeEDGE have lost 3 riders - Simon Gerrans, Daryl Impey, and Michael Albasini. They only have 6 riders and Michael Matthews is not in his bestg shape. Furthermore, the course is too hilly for them.

As to Etixx-QuickStep, they would have been among the big favourites for this stage if Tony Martin had still been in the race. Mark Cavendish and Mark Renshaw are not suited for this course and Matteo Trentin is not a specialist.

BMC are the reigning world champions and won the Dauphiné stage a few weeks ago. They will look to move Tejay van Garderen into the yellow jersey. The team has not had any major setbacks and can count on specialists such as Van Garderen, Quinziato and Rohan Dennis.

In the Dauphiné, BMC main rivals were Astana who missed out on the win by just four second. Lars Boom is recovering his form whiile Kangert, Taaramae, Grivko and Westra are both great time triallists who excel in hilly terrain. Anyway, Vincenzo Nibali showed signs of weakness on the Mur-de-Bretagne, losing contact with a relatively big group.

Team Sky has a shot was less-than-stellar in the team time trial at the recent Critérium du Dauphiné but this parcours should suit them well. With strongmen Ian Stannard and Luke Rowe, plus strong time trialists in Geriant Thomas, Richie Porte and Peter Kennagh, today could be another time we see Froome take big time on some of his opponents. They definetely have a shot.

Movistar also has a chance at victory, with Adriano Malori and Alex Dowsett on the flat, and Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana when there are hills involved.

Tinkoff-Saxo has put in a few strong TTTs so far this year but they are lacking some of their stronger riders against the clock for this test.

IAM, Lotto NL and Cannondale-Garmin can make exploit but we don't see these teams in the top 3 today. Other teams such as FDJ, Trek, AG2R, Katusha, Lampre, Giant Alpecin and Europcar have no motivations or no specialists and can be ruled out.