Tour de France: Stage six predictions and cycling betting tips

Free cycling tips and analysis for stage six of the 2022 Tour de France.

When to watch

Eurosport 1 & ITV4, 1pm Thursday

Stage six preview

The longest stage of the Tour is also one of the hardest to predict, with many of the peloton smarting from Wednesday’s carnage on the cobbles and the big guns mindful that Friday brings the first mountain finish.

A 220km route, three categorised climbs and a sharp dig to the line equals a recipe for the breakaway tough guys to fight out the finish, which makes it extremely difficult for punters to identify the winner.

There will be plenty of more appealing stages to come from a punting perspective and a more interesting point of focus is the outright market after Wednesday’s drama, which saw the Jumbo-Visma team’s hopes of thwarting Tadej Pocagar’s hat-trick bid take a huge dent.

Both their joint leaders suffered losses, Jonas Vingegaard shedding 13 seconds to Pogacar after suffering a mechanical fault and Primoz Roglic finishing 2min 9sec behind the champion after being taken down by a bale of hay.

It was always going to be a stressful day for the riders as the route crossed 11 cobbled sections, and as the Jumbo-Visma leaders toiled Pogacar kicked on to strengthen his position as market leader.

The stage was won by veteran Australian Simon Clarke, part of a five-man break that formed early on and were never threatened, but the headlines were caused by the shake-up in the general classification.

The upshot is Pogacar is 1-3 with bet365 to win his third successive Tour with Vingegaard 3-1 and the next shortest rider at 12-1. Pogacar has 21 seconds in hand of the Dane, while Roglic, who dislocated his shoulder when he came down, is 2min 17sec back and out to 18-1.

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