Excitement, Crashes, Attack after attack, fans lining every inch of the route and several epic finale’s on brilliant climbs. This year’s Vuelta has had it all and while Joaquin Rodriguez – the outstanding rider of the tour in my eyes – sadly couldn’t bring home a hugely deserved fourth Grand Tour at the age of 33 after his stage 17 blowout. He did return place money for us however, and the top 3 banker bet has returned handsomely, which covers our own stakes well.
Today’s stage is a short, flat procession ride which will see the riders tackle 10 laps of a 5.7km finishing circuit based on the Plaza de Cibeles on the Paseo del Prado, aptly where Real Maadrid celebrate successes. Contador – now an extremely strong favourite for next year’s Tour De France –will be crowned Champion ahead of Valverde and Purito.
Before that there’s the last real stage, which is one for the sprinters and one that should be a bunch sprint with plenty motivated enough to do so – Team Sky, with Froome’s fourth safe, have yet to win a Stage of the tour so far and Ben Swift has come close on two occasions, so he must be in line for a big leadout today – while John Degenkolb’s Argos Shimano team have been incredible in propelling him to four stage wins so far. That may well have been 5 had the winds not played a large part on Stage 18 in splitting him and his Argos Shimano team from Davis, Swift and Daniele Bennati (pictured), and at even money he can finish our Vuelta in style. The biggest challengers to him have been Davis, Swift (who has improved over the course of the Tour to his credit after coming in for some stick here) and Bennanti, who was hugely deserving of his own stage win on 17. Adept at finding the gaps in sprints so far, he’s been one of the most consistent so far and is an excellent saver at 6/1 with Sportingbet.
Advice
3 pts John Degenkolb (evs general)
1 pt Daniele Bennati (6/1 Sportingbet)
No comments:
Post a Comment