The riders have already completed ten thrilling Stages of what has been a truly dramatic Tour de France so far. The first week and a half has flown by, and one thing is for sure, it has certainly not been a tour for the faint hearted. There have been a series of serious, and tour-ending crashes. The worst of which came on Sunday when some wreckless driving threw two riders off their bikes, and they were fortunate to still be alive let alone finish the race, which they did by the way. British hearts sank when Bradley Wiggins was forced to withdraw after breaking his collarbone during Stage 8, but Mark Cavendish managed  to brush off his early frustrations to post a couple of Stage wins so far. Sadly, there has already been a first major doping offence, with the Russian rider Alexandr Kolobnev chucked off the tour for testing positive for Hydrochlorothiazide HCT.

The betting is now in full flow as the riders get ready to hit the gruelling mountains on Thursday 14^th July. Last year’s runner up Andy Schleck has replaced the pre-tour favourite and three time winner, Alberto Contador, at the head of the Outright Betting, and now has odds of 11/10 with Paddy Power to win his first Tour de France. Contador has suffered a couple of minor crashes and has also complained of a niggling knee injury. However, he is widely recognised as the best climber in the pack and with the tour due to head into the mountains the Spaniard is likely to come into his own and start reducing the time gap between himself and his rivals. Paddy Power have the 28-year-old available at 11/4 to finish as the King of the Mountains.

At 4/1 to win the Tour de France, the Australian Cadel Evans looks a very good bet. The 34-year-old has had a fantastic tour so far and looks to be going from strength to strength. He is currently sitting in third place overall and will determined to continue eclipsing his major rivals as the tour progresses.

Sprinting sensation Mark Cavendish has already two Stages to his name, and came close to making that three on Tuesday but he was just edged out on the line by his former team mate Andre Greipel. The Manxman is the odds-on 8/12 favourite to win Stage 11 (Blage-les-Mines Lavaur) today and thus edge closer to catching the green jersey leader Philippe Gilbert. Cavendish has odds of 5/4 to win the Points Classification battle, behind the 11/10 favourite Gilbert.

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