With a little over a week remaining to the June 26 start of the 2021 Tour de France, oddsmakers Sports Betting Dime are pegging defending champion Tadej Pogacar to walk away with the maillot jaune again this year, putting him as a +125 favorite over fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic at +179.
Pogacar led most of the rescheduled 2020 edition of the race, before losing the yellow jersey in the penultimate time trial stage and handing the race to his compatriot.
A trio of riders from the Ineos Grenadiers team hold the next three spots in the odds, with Geraint Thomas favored over last year’s third place finisher Richie Porte at +550 and +1100 respectively.
Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s Julian Alaphilippe sits at sixth in the odds at +2500. The Frenchman, who won the 2020 Road World Championships, made a strong early showing in both the 2019 and 2020 races before ultimately fading away, but the eyes of the home fans will be on him once again.
The route for the 2021 Tour is pretty traditional as the race goes. It was supposed to start on July 2 in Copenhagen, but because of COVID-19, organizers wanted to keep the race inside France‘s borders, avoid a suite of rescheduled Euro 2020 football dates and the 2021 Olympics. There are no major climbs until Stage 8. Perhaps the most exciting day will be Stage 11 when riders tackle a double ascent of Mont Ventoux. Stages 5 and 20 are individual time trials.
You could argue that last year Jumbo – Visma brought a more star studded team to the Tour than Ineos. While Roglic was their top dog, Tom Dumoulin is more than capable in leading a team, and Wout van Aert, George Bennett, and Sepp Kuss all put in serious work. While everybody will remember Pogacar on Stage 20, Jumbo and Roglic controlled large portions of the race.
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