Tour de France 2017 – Young Rider Classification
I will begin my coverage of the Tour de France 2017 with what I think is the most interesting and competitive classification – that for the Young Rider’s White Jersey. This jersey is awarded to the leader on time amongst the riders who are 25 and younger.
Unlike the Maillot Jaune and Green Jersey there are likely 5 contenders for this overall classification. I will break them down for you below.
Tour de France 2017 – The Route
It is important to know a little about this years course to explain why these 5 riders feature.
The 2017 race covers 3,540kms over the traditional 21 stages. Of these there are:
- an unsually high number of sprinters stages (9);
- hilly stages (5);
- mountain stages (5) but only 3 mountain top finishes and the one of those is on a category 2 climb;
- ITT – individual time trials (2) but only covering a total of 38kms.
The aim of designing this years course in this manner is try to make the race for the Yellow Jersey as close as possible. This should equally impact those riders chasing the White Jersey and in my view makes this a fascinating battle too.
NOTE – this is a WIN ONLY Market.
Tour de France 2017 – Young Rider Classification – Favourites
Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) starts as favourite to win the White Jersey at odds in the region of 1.90. Yates is trying to emulate his brother Adam’s performance in last years Tour de France (finished 4th) which would almost guarantee him a win in this classification. Like his brother, Simon has the looks of a top 10 type of Grand Tour rider. He climbs well enough to win mountain stages against the big boys as his stage wins at this years Paris-Nice and Tour de Romandie attest. In the latter he beat many pundits Tour de France overall favourite Richie Porte to the line. Yates has 3 Grand Tour starts and two finishes – 2015 TDF (89th) and 2016 Vuelta (6th). This years field is so strong that a top 10 would be an awesome result. He might need that to win the White Jersey. It looks like he is team co-leader with Esteban Chaves so he will get great support on the tougher stages. I would have liked odds around 2.50 to place a bet – at the moment I’m wavering.
Louis Meintjes (UAE Team Emirates) is a lot like Yates in that his strength is climbing. As a lighter rider he struggles most in ITT’s and the lack of time-trial kms in this years race helps his chances. Meintjes has two results of note so far in 2017 with top tens in two week long races – 6th (Tour of the Basque Country) and 8th (Dauphine). What works in Meintjes favour over Yates is he is slightly more seasoned in Grand Tours with 5 starts (4 finishes) including two top 10s – 2015 Vuelta (10th) and 2016 TDF (8th). Meintjes in the early betting markets looks slightly better value at 2.25.
[the_ad_group id=”3682″]
Tour de France 2017 – Young Rider Classification – The Others
Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) has really emerged in the last two months as a serious challenger for this jersey. He finished 7th at the recent Dauphine and won the Young Riders jersey in the process beating Meintjes. Buchmann also has 4 other top 10 results in multi-stage races in 2017 with the most imprrssive being 7th at Tour of the Alps and 10th at Tour de Romandie. Thus far Buchmann has two Grand Tour appearances to his name finishing 83rd then 21st in the last two TDF’s. Make no mistake Buchmann is a rider with a bright future. I have one concern over his chances in this race – he might be riding as last mountain support for team leader Rafa Majka. If that is the case this has the potential to reduce hs chances of beating Yates and Meintjes. I am tempted to place a small bet at 7.0.
Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates) has produced his best results in the last two Giro d’Italia’s. He has a stage win in the last two Giro’s and held the KOTM Jersey for 3 stages in 2016 and 8 in 2017. This year he managed to get his best ever Grand Tour finish with 11th at the Giro. His only TDF start ended with a 54th place in 2015. Polanc can be backed at 15.0 but these odds are currently going out. The reason for this is because in recent years riders have been unable to back up their results from the Giro in the TDF. There simply isn’t enough time to recover and to me this is a no brainer as a NO.
Pierre-Roger Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) can be backed at 17.0 to win this jersey. Latour’s best result of 2017 was winning the Young Riders Jersey at the Tour de Romandie beating a numbe rof the riders mentioned here. Two things go against Latour. The first – this is only his second Grand Tour – he was 28th at the 2016 Vuelta. Second – the French press will be clamouring for home riders to do well. This pressure can take its toll on the younger riders. I think he needs to ride a TDF then he will contend for this jersey in 2018.
I was hoping that Marc Soler (Movistar) and Julian Alaphilippe (Quick Step-Floors) would be taking part in the 2017 race. It seems that Movistar are holding Soler back for the Vuelta as his maiden Grand Tour start. He really has the looks of a future Grand Tour winner! Alaphilippe is still recovering from knee surgery in May. Based on his early season showings I would have really liked his chances of winning the Young Rider’s jersey here if he were riding.
Tour de France 2017 – Young Rider Classification – Tips
I’m going with two small stakes bets in this market.
Back Louis Meintjes to win the Young Riders Jersey with a 1.25/10 stake at 2.25 with 888Sport.
Back Emanuel Buchmann to win the Young Riders Jersey with a 1.0/10 stake at 7.0 with 888Sport.
Bet here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017
