People bet on Tour de France cycling across the globe and BookMaker customers can be prepared for the action by reading every stage preview. Start filling your brain with biking knowledge and start cashing wagers today! Stage 1 of the 2012 Tour de France is scheduled for Sunday, July 1, and will start in Liege and finish in Seraing.

Tour de France Stage 1 Winner

Liquigas-Cannondale’s Peter Sagain clinched the first stage of the 2012 Tour de France on his debut with a mix of power and tactics.

Sagan maintained his position towards the front on the final breakaway and then followed Cancellara’s attack as he rode away from the group. He shrewdly sat on the yellow jersey’s wheel and even though Boasson Hagen attempted to bridge the gap Sagan wiped out his opponents with blast of pure power.

Sagan will have a special bike at the start in Visé tomorrow, created especially by Cannondale to pay tribute to his triumphs: the “Tourminator”.

With his first win at the Grande Boucle, Peter Sagan has now racked up a personal record of 14 wins, which brings the season’s score up to 29 for Liquigas-Cannondale.

Radioshack Nissan Trek’s Fabian Cancellara led Sagan through the final kilometers of the stage before being passed just before the finish. The Swiss rider finished with the same time as the leader, however, and maintains atop the general classification of the race.

Tour de France Betting Odds: Following the 2012 Tour de France individual time trial prologue on July 30, the first stage of the race will travel from Liege to Seraing.

The 198-kilometer Stage 1 is a flat or plain stage. The Belgian city of Leige has served as a stage host in 10 previous Tours and has a population of around 192,000 people. The competitors will gather at Place Saint-Lambert for the official commencement ceremony.

This will be the third time the Tour de France has traversed through the town of Seraing, which has 63,000 inhabitants. Sylvain Chavanel won the last stage held in the province of Leige.

Pure sprinters will struggle to gain an advantage in the Tour de France during this opening stage that ends with a 2.5-kilometer ascent. Look for the puncheurs, which are cyclists with explosive speed on short but steep gradients, to carry the Yellow Jersey after Stage 1.

The 2012 Tour de France consists of one prologue and 20 stages, which covers a total distance of 3,479 kilometers. The race will feature nine flat stages and two individual time trials. There will be three summit finishes among the five mountain stages and four medium-mountain stages. Two rest days are built in to this year's event and there is no team time-trial stage.

Two-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador will not be competing in this year's race after testing positive for the banned drug Clenbuterol in early February. He was stripped of his 2010 Tour title and suspended for two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Last year, Cadel Evans captured his first Yellow Jersey by traversing through the Alps and the reaching the highest summit finish in Tour de France history. Evans was the first Australian to win the coveted race.

Andy Schleck, who was awarded the 2010 Tour title after it was vacated by Contador, finished runner-up to Evans in 2011. Schleck's brother, Frank, finished third. Mark Cavendish was crowned winner of the points classification while Samuel Sanchez of Spain won the King of the Mountains category.

Because there are three time trials totaling 96.1 kilometers, cycling experts contend that this year's profile heavily favors clock specialists. And even though Contador won't be racing, he has given gamblers a prediction to chew on.

"It will be a race in which you have to attack, which is not a bad thing. It is more for the riders that go very strong in the time trials," said Contador. "This is a course that favors the winner of last year, Cadel Evans."

Evans is currently going off as the 2012 Tour de France cycling odds favorite at +190. Bradley Wiggins, who won the Paris-Nice, is another complete rider and he is the second-favorite at +350. Other time trial specialists are Denis Menchov and Tony Martin and they are priced at +1000 and +6600, respectively.

Even though Andy Schleck is a climber and there are only three uphill finishes in this year's trek, he has the third-lowest odds to win the 2012 Tour at +400. Brother Frank currently holds +4000 odds.

Tour de France director, Christian Prudhomme, leaves cycling bettors with this little nugget:

"So let us make a bet that the very significant increase in the number of time trials will not ensure the impunity of the best riders," Prudhomme said in a statement. "In any event, the climbers and puncheurs whose abilities are limited in this exercise know what is required of them: if they don't attack, there will be no victories for them on the roads of the 2012 Tour."

BookMaker offers Tour de France cycling odds so you can predict the winner and cash your futures bet. Individual stage winners will also be available for wagering so start handicapping the world of cycling today!

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• Prologue
• Stage 1
• Stage 2
• Stage 3
• Stage 4
• Stage 5
• Stage 6
• Stage 7
• Stage 8
• Stage 9
• Stage 10
• Stage 11
• Stage 12
• Stage 13
• Stage 14
• Stage 15
• Stage 16
• Stage 17
• Stage 18
• Stage 19
• Stage 20

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