Alexander Vinokourov of Astana is the favorite of the English bookmakers to win the Tour de France...
Alexander Vinokourov of Astana is the favorite of the English bookmakers to win the Tour de France this year, who see a 1 to 3.25 chance that he'll be atop the podium in Paris.
He is followed by Alejandro Valverde at 1 to 5 and teammate Andreas Klöden at 1 to 6, reported sportwereld.be. Further back are Levi Leipheimer and Carlos Sastre at 1 to 12, Denis Menchov at 1 to 16, and Cadel Evans and Yaroslav Popovych at 1 to 20. The first Italian on the list is Damiano Cunego, who has odds of only 1 to 25.

But William Hill has Contador odds on favourite; Andy Schleck 2/1; Wiggins 20/1; Vinokourov 100/1.

Most of the riders were cheered by the crowd but Alberto Contador was booed loudly as he stepped on to the stage. Earlier his team manager Bjarne Riis had defended the Spaniard’s right to race because his Clenbuterol positive from last year’s Tour de France has still to be considered by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. However, the crowd’s disapproving reaction indicates Contador is not welcomed by many of the French spectators at this year’s race.