Kenilworth off, Tour on
A soggy track at Kenilworth is considered too dangerous for racing and Tuesday's race meeting at the Cape Town venue has been postponed to Thursday. This means a second blank day in a row for South African racing and inveterate punters will be itching for bet.
Once again, the Tour de France offers something different in that department.
No rain is expected on the Tour's 170-odd km stage 4, which finishes in the city of Rouen. After the crash-blighted chaos of stage 3, the riders will nervous – particularly with more stiff winds expected.
The Tour guide describes Tuesday's stage as tough with a lot of short and explosive climbs close to the finish. In Rouen we could have a similar finale to that of Sunday, when Mathieu van der Poel won.
The current yellow jersey wearer is again among the fancies, but overall race favourites Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard – and other general classification contenders – will surely be in the shakedown.
Betway's odds on the top choices are:
• Mathieu van der Poel – R2.25 for the Win
• Tadej Pogacar – R3.75
• Jonas Vingegaard – R13.00
• Romain Gregoire – R15.00 (and R4.50 for a Top 3 place)
• Kevin Vaquelin – R15.00 (R4.50 Top 3)
The latter two might be a shrewd bet. Tuesday's stage is similar to stage two of the 2024 Tour won by Frenchman Vauquelin, who has shown up well in the early stages of this year's race, finishing 16th on Day 1 and 8th on Sunday.
Gregoire was fourth on stage two and is well matched with Vauquelin, who he pipped on a lumpy opening stage of the Tour de Suisse last month.
Gregoire also finished a place in front of Vauquelin in the recent French national championship, where the pair were second and third, and the two are undoubtedly the best chances of a first French victory in this year's race.
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