Froome extending Tour lead
The Tour de France held an Alpine climbing stage on Wednesday and Chris Froome managed to improve his odds to win this year’s championship once again.
According to oddsmakers at Bovada.lv, Chris Froome is the clear favorite to win, as he has odds of -3300 to prevail. Other short odds are Nairo Quintana (+4000) and Richie Porte (+4000). Stage 18 of the Tour takes place on Thursday. It is a 10.6-mile time trial from Sallanches to Megeve.
Stage 17 on Wednesday saw Russia’s Ilnur Zakarin win the Alpine stage in 4:36:33, he finished nearly a full minute ahead of Jarlinson Pantano of Colombia. Froome came in 11th, finishing 7:59 out of first while Quintana was 16th, 8:27 back, and Porte was 10th, also 7:59 back.
Froome has extended his overall lead to 2:27 ahead of Bauke Mollema of the Netherlands. Quintana is fourth, 3:27 back, while Porte sits in sixth, 4:27 out of first. Froome is currently listed as the slight favorite to win Stage 18 tomorrow, as he has -120 odds, while Tom Dumoulin has +175 odds and Porte is at +450.