Tour De France: Favorites Who Have Ground to Make Up After Disappointing Stage 1

Cyclists who started the 2013 Tour de France slowly still have plenty of time to catch the leader, Marcel Kittel.

However, odds for favorites who need that time to play catch-up took a slight hit in Stage 1. Here are three Tour de France competitors who failed to live up to expectations and jump out to an early lead.

3. Daniel Martin

According to bet365, Daniel Martin entered the prestigious race with the 11th-best odds to finish first. He has plenty of cyclists to peddle past to reach 11th, let alone first. He finished in 93rd place in Stage 1.

Martin would’ve likely finished further back if he hadn’t been able to avoid the pileup near the race’s end.

Martin finished 35th in 2012, so he knows what it takes to improve his position quite a bit at the very least.

 

2. Tejay van Garderen

The 24-year-old Tejay Van Garderen finished fifth in the Tour de France last year. Naturally, he’s a favorite to compete for the title again with another year under his belt.

Bet365 pegged him with the seventh-best odds to win it all, but Van Garderen struggled out the starting gate to live up to the standards he set for him in 2012. He finished closer to last than first, ending the day at 139th place partly due to the crash.

1. Alberto Contador

While Van Garderen and Martin both recorded poor starts compared to their odds to win the Tour de France, Alberto Contador boasted a better probability than both of them and finished even farther behind.

Bet365 projected Contador with the best odds to win the race out of any cyclist not named Chris Froome. The 30-year-old two-time Tour de France champion sits in 162nd place at the conclusion of Stage 1 after the wreck sent him crashing to the ground.

Contador, Van Garderen and Martin are lucky only one day has passed.

David Daniels is a breaking news writer at Bleacher Report and news editor at Wade-O Radio.