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Cycling is a popular sport in the world and BookMaker is the world's leading online sportsbook. If you are betting on the 2012 Tour de France Vegas odds it only makes sense to be cashing your tickets at BookMaker.com! Stage 2 of the Tour will start on Monday, July 2, 2012, at Vise and end in Tournai.

Tour de France Stage 2 Winner

Just about every team in the peloton had someone on the front of the peloton at some stage of the final 10km of the 207.5km race from Vise to Tournai but Sky was relatively anonymous in the final rush to the line. Instead it was Lotto-Belisol and Orica-GreenEdge that had the strength of numbers in the final kilometer. Greg Henderson charged into the front and delivered André Greipel to the 250 meter to go mark and that's when the giant German turned on the turbo... and very nearly claimed his second Tour stage win. But behind him was Mr Mark Cavendish who judged the sprint to perfection and did what he does so well: win! That's 21 stage wins in six years for the reigning world champion and, like he did in 2009, he got the Tour off to the perfect start

Tour de France Betting Odds: The 2012 Tour de France route continues through Belgium with another flat setting in Stage 2.

This trek is a bit longer than the opener, totaling a distance of 207 kilometers, or 129 miles. Cycling fans shouldn't expect a sprint finish here because riders will need to conserve energy for the upcoming medium-mountain stretch.

Stage 2 begins in Vise, which is on Tour for the first time in history. The 17,000-person community has hosted the Tour of Belgium as well as the Tour de Wallonie previously.

Tournai is the head district of the Province of Hainaut and the grounds of Wouter Weylandt's memorable last victory. The Belgian Weylandt was just 26 years of age when he crashed and died while competing in the 2011 Giro d'Italia. A native countryman won the Tournai stage the last time the Tour stopped by in 1966 and it would be fitting for it to happen again.

The 2012 Tour de France will take place from Saturday, June 30 to Sunday, July 22. This will mark the 99th edition of the historic cycling race that began in 1903. The epic journey will begin in the Belgian city of Liege and end on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

The 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 favorite with +190 odds. 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."

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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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