Stage 9 - Tuesday, July 17: Val-d’Isère - Briançon, 159.5km

There are times when it pays to have a good think about how you forsee a stage developing. Sometimes it goes nothing like you imagine and sometimes like on stage 8 everything works out beautifully and you wonder how you ever lose money betting on cycling.

Anyway lets have a look at these 2 riders and what they will be looking to do on stage 9 and hopefully like me you will realise what looks quite an innocuos matchup on paper could well be a bit of a mismatch on the mountains.

Thomas Dekker is a young rider who i predicted could win the young riders contest. After losing 19 minutes on stage 8 he has no hope of catching Contador. His personal ambitions are over. He rides for Rabobank and they have the leader of the tour to look after tomorrow. Dekker will be asked to help out for as long as he can and then left to his own devices to make his way to the finish like any good domestique.

Markus Fothen meanwhile lost 9 minutes on stage 9. I would actually say these 2 have equal ability over the mountains but Fothens team gerolsteiner has no GC ambitions so Fothen will not have to worry about anyone other than himself. He has proven he knows how to get over these mountains last year when he just lost out on the white jersey himself.

Two equally matched riders they may be but what i percieve their tasks to be tomorrow Fothen ought to be minutes in front of Dekker.

I have a list of over 50 H2Hs, i have gone thru them pretty carefully over the last few hours and this is imo one of the best bets for tomorrows stage.

Pick : Fothen to beat Dekker
Odds : 1.80
Stake : 8 / 10
Bookmaker : BetSafe
Date : 2007-07-17
Match Result :
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