The 2013 Tour de France was won in style by Chris Froome, but stage winning bets landed at 55/1, 38/1, 8/1, 4/1 and more made it an excellent Tour for fans of cyclingbetting.co.uk too. Added to that were a number of winning Match Bets and Jersey bets - all bets are detailed in the previews below.
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Now that the dust has settled and the champagne corks have been swept up from Team Sky's party, it's time to look back at the Tour and how our pre-tour bets turned out. In my pre-race preview I said that Froome would probably win it, but I thought odds-on was very short ahead of what was going to be a tough Tour.
What a way to finish the Tour - a spectacular nocturne on the streets of Paris, culminating in a 70kmph sprint down the Champs-Élysées. And to make it all the better for me (and hopefully you too) a fantastic win for my tip of the day Marcel Kittel at a great price, along with my Greipel place bet and my two match bets!.
What a finish to the Tour for me. Following on from Costa landing my stage 20 tip at 38/1, today I landed a whole host of bets recommended in my preview. I was a big fan of Quintana before, I'm a huge fan now of the diminutive Colombian! The stage worked out exactly as I had hoped.
A great result for Rui Costa today, a great result for me after backing him at 38/1! It all worked out perfectly, if not exactly as I had envisaged it, with Costa and De Clercq in the final selection of the day. Lays in-play of Nieve, Hesjedal and Rolland helped too!
What a day, what a stage, what drama and action. The much-hyped double ascension of Alpe d'Huez lived up to its billing and gave us a day to remember for many reasons. Right from the flag drop there was furious action and we were lucky for once to have it live on Eurosport as riders attacked relentlessly trying to pressure Froome.
The forecast rain came in today's stage and it made a huge difference to the times with early starter Tejay Van Garderen riding a brilliant TT just before the rain started.. but that was only the start of the excitement!
First a quick recap on Tuesday's stage, which was fast and furious right from the off as and a large break went and stayed away for the day as expected..
And on we go with stage 16, a short spin to Gap. The riders will have rested and recovered a little after their efforts up Ventoux on Sunday, but rest day can often be far from restful with media duties, family visits and so on.
What can you say about Chris Froome's ride yesterday up Ventoux that hasn't been said in the 24 hours since he obliterated the field once again? He has now a buffer of over 4 minutes to Bauke Mollema, who he should have no fear of in the week ahead.
Well, I almost nailed another cracker today. Michael Albasini, one of my 4 picks at 42s was narrowly pipped by 1000/1 shot Trentin. I really thought he had it and still don't know how he threw it away..
Well so much for it being a boring flat stage eh? The result says Mark Cavendish landed the bets for us with the win, but that doesn't tell half of the story of stage 13!
The tour heads south-east in to central France on another day similar to stage 12. Flat for the most part, bar a short Cat 4 climb that most of them will not even realise they are on.
So the forecast of Martin-Froome came in as expected, but boy was it closer than I or many others thought it would be with some frantic market moves in the last 10 minutes or so!
The Tour moves on to it's first individual time trial with a 33km spin from Avranches to the beautiful backdrop of Mont-St-Michel.
What a tremendous weekend of racing we were treated to! First on Saturday - Sky, and inparticular Froome and Porte, blew the race apart with some incredible riding, then on Sunday to see Sky capitulate as the peloton bit back at the Froome dog!
After an incredibly dramatic two days in the Pyrenees, we are served with what will probably be one of the most boring stages of the Tour! 197km of more or less flat transition which, barring some miracle escape, will end up in a big bunch gallop.
As the famous commentary line went in the 1966 World Cup final - "they think it's all over", seems a lot of commentators and fans are thinking the same thing after just the first mountain stage, such was Sky, and in particular, Chris Froome's dominance.
A great stage for me yesterday with my headline bet Sagan landing the odds at 4/1 after a superb performance from the Cannondale boys to rip it up the Cat 2 climb and leave the sprinters trailing in their wake.
Yesterday worked out ok in the end despite Greipel winning, annoyingly considering how I have been backing him up to now to win!
Well yesterday was a day to forget as Cavendish confounded the sceptics (me included) to power home ahead of Eddie B and Sagan. Greipel was a disappointment, getting messed about a little with his leadout train and having to jump in behind Cav's wheel in the last 200m or so, a wheel he never was likely to pass.
Today's stage is a difficult one to call. On paper, they say, it should come down to a mass bunch sprint with all the protagonists involved. But as we saw yesterday, what they say and what can actually happen often are poles apart!
The 2013 Tour de France gets underway in Corsica on Saturday June 30th with Britain's Chris Froome the hot favourite to follow in fellow countryman Bradley Wiggins' steps and bring the 'Maillot Jaune' back for Team Sky.
Nice to see you, to see you Nice!
So after a fascinating opening to the 2013 Tour de France on the stunning looking island of Corsica, the riders return to the mainland today for the first real chance for the GC to spread out a little (currently there are 74 riders within 1 second of the Yellow Jersey!
Last year I plumped for Sagan over Cavendish for the points jersey with my biggest bet of the Tour at 6/4 and it was all over in the first week. This year it is incredibly tight with both riders more or less at even money.
