Tour De France - Sylvain Chavanel v Cyril Dessel

,b>Tour de France - Stage 18

Sebastian Chavanel (2.250) vs Cyril Dessel (1.741)

With the toughest stage of the tour behind them the peleton will be breathing a sigh of relief at a slightly easier day in the saddle altho they still face the 196.5km of Stage 18 - Bourg d'Oisans - Saint Étienne. I say easier, you try riding 196.5km in the French sun and see how you like it!

The profile of the stage suggests to me that some riders a long way down on the GC (general classification) will be allowed to escape the peleton as there is quite a long gap between the first climb of the day and the last 2 where CSC might give it some welly or may just choose to ride tempo and keep the race under control.

Sylvain Chavanel has been very prominent so far in the tour attacking on many occasions and winning the combative rider jersey on stages 2 and 6 as well as having a go on stage 14 which was similar to this stage. I really like betting on him for this stage because:

1. He may go off on the attack early.

2. He has the ability to stay in the main peleton and attack in one of the final climbs to try to take the stage

3. He will definitely try to go on the final climb if the bunch are together as he did in stage 14

4. He has a decent enough sprint to be a contender if the race is together at the finish.

Cyril Dessel has already won a stage winning stage 16 (yet another stage that saw a Chavanel attack) in fine style outsprinting 3 fellow breakway riders. He put in a big effort the next day (yesterday) on alpe d'Huez while Chavanel took it far easier coming in with the main group which is a far easier way to ride up a big mountain.

No doubting Dessel is a very talented rider but I will be very suprised if we see Dessel at all today as he will surely look for a quiet day in the peleton to recover after his efforts over the previous 2 days.

The profile just looks like a chance for Chavanel to do something and perhaps best of all if they are together at the finish we have over 2.0 on the coin flip of who crosses the line first which is never a bad position to be in.

2.25 on Chavanel seems very generous to me assuming he doesnt have flu or something!

Pick : Sylvain Chavanel to beat Dessel
Odds : 2.25
Stake : 8 / 10
Bookmaker : Pinnacle
Match Result : 27th vs 7th
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