Paris-Nice had a fairly uneventful start yesterday with an
uber short prologue, won by the unkown Frenchman Damien Gaudin by just a
fraction of a second. With the distance being so short that no decent time gaps
were opened up – 49 seconds separated first to last, with Maxime Monfort’s time
having come due to a crash – it was surprising to see Tejay Van Garderen pushed
out to 9/2 having conceded just 10 seconds on the day.
Unless the main contenders go for it on stages 3 and 4 –
both of which feature flat finishes
after several climbs – there’s not likely to be much change in the GC,
and for betting purposes, today and tomorrow’s stages should result in bunch
sprints unless the crosswinds are particularly fierce between the circuit
finish in Nemours; There’s a climb with a road that rises at 4% for 500m but
that’s a formality.
With the stage pan flat it’s obvious that people will look
to the likes of Marcel Kittel and co for the stage win, but Kittel is horrendously
short at 6/4 and far better value lies with young sprinters Nacer Bouhanni and
Elia Viviani, both of whom could conceivably take the win with the time bonuses
on offer today, with Viviani being just six seconds off the pace, and Bouhanni
being just 10 seconds behind. Given that Bouhanni won the last stage of the
Tour of Oman, to see him as big as 11’s is surprising, and Viviani will have
plenty of motivation here.
Advice
1 pt win Nacer Bouhanni (7/1 Bet365)
1 pt win Elia Viviani (11/1 general)
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