Cycling Betting | Eneco Tour Stage 5 Preview

Details: Published on Friday, 16 August 2013 00:13

Eneco Tour Stage 5 Preview

Sittard-Geleen 13.2km ITT

So Greipel finally landed a winning bet for me in the Eneco Tour, doing it more or less exactly as I had predicted.. Lotto-Belisol must have got a rollicking last night after that poor performance in the lead out yesterday when Roelandts blew Greipels chances, as they were much better today.

Tyler Farrar actually came really close to landing the place money at 33/1, was in a perfect position on Greipel's wheel for about the last 3kms, but just when it mattered most he lost it in the last 500m and just faded to 6th in the last 50m or so. Nizzolo took 2nd with Boom an impressive 3rd, gaining enough bonus seconds to lift him in to the leader's jersey. A very satisfying day for the Dutchman, riding in to his home town.

Eneco st5

Tomorrow's stage is a short 13.2km individual Time Trial around the town of Sittard-Geleen. The course is more or less flat, rising a little until 8km in, with quite a few twists and turns along the way, but it is downhill to the finish and almost dead straight from 5.6km to go. It is not too far to create huge time gaps, at only 13.2kms, but it should still see a fair shake up in the GC. Boom is an alright Time Triallist, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Phinney take 2nd tomorrow and the race lead also.

Wiggins is the very short favourite at just 4/7 with Paddy Power and William Hill, BetVictor aren't taking any chances with him, going just 4/9. He probably will win, and if backing at 4/7 is your thing, then steam in, it is almost a certainty barring incidents or accidents. He may have been woefully off the pace all week, losing time every day, but he is here for one reason, a bit of training around winning this TT in preparation for the world's. He will be far too good for these guys, his nearest challenger should be Phinney, but in Poland he was more than a minute behind. Granted this is much shorter and Phinney has said himself he "likes it when it's a bit shorter. I knew I wasn't at my best in Poland, and I think it will be better here".

The problem with backing him is that he is probably only fighting for second place, and anyway, it's another pathetic show by the bookmakers as not one is offering each-way betting out of six showing odds on Oddschecker. Best you can hope for is to back him to place in the top 3, but those odds are even more prohibitive than backing Wiggo to win, he is just 2/7 with Bet365 to top 3 it. I would like to take on Boom, the 3rd favourite (he's just 9/20) but it is with whom is the question - Chavanel is next at 7/2, but the next two could be interesting, Westra and Kelderman who are both 11/2. I think I might just leave it and watch for any in-play opportunities, although liquidity will be almost non-existant..

Instead, just to have an interest, I have picked out some match bets I fancy and have stuck them in an accumulator with Bet365. It pays 5.6/1