Julian Alaphilippe (4/1) got our Tour De France stage picks off to a flier yesterday and we look to follow up on Stage 3 with a long flat day in prospect.
At just under 200km it is a long day in the saddle with an ideal sprint finish at the foot of the Alps awaiting. Given whats in store in the coming days this stage is sure to be targeted by all the sprinter teams as a rare chance for victory.
Stage 1 was hard to analyse with the treacherous conditions and the messy finish however there were some sprinters who showed they may be riding back in to form.
One of those was the enigmatic Italian Elia Viviani who finished strongly from a bad position to claim sixth on the day.
This came on the back of glimpses of form this month in La Route d’Occitanie where he got involved in some of the sprint finishes. He looks a big price (20/1) to follow Alexander Kristoffs surprise Stage 1 win.
The head of the market is shared by Sam Bennett and Caleb Ewan again but there are question marks over both. The latter had a tough day in the saddle on day one expending a lot of energy to come back to the peloton having had a fall and Stage 2 did not provide much by way of respite for the powerful Australian.
Irishman Bennett for his part made some poor decisions in the finale on day one betraying a lack of experience with his positioning and putting himself on the wrong side of the road in the closing stages. There is no doubt he has been one of the form sprint riders this year but its easy to avoid him at the prices.
Instead we’ll take a chance on Cofidis lead out train leading home Viviani for a surprise win.
Recommendation:
Elia Viviani to win Stage 3 of TdF , 1pt win, 20/1 generally available
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