Am I a betting woman?

www.Unibet.com aka mrbookmaker.com:
Bets for June 9, 2006 - Dauphine Libere
1361 Valverde, A - Hincapie, G
Best finishing position (Stage)
Both riders must start and at least 1 of them complete the stage for bets to stand
1st 1.60, 3rd 2.10
Nine other combos exist for this stage.

Bets for July 23, 2006
9293 Tour de France 2006:
Overall winner, Who will win?
All bets void if any of the named riders are non starters
Basso, I, 2.35
Ullrich, J 3.50
Vinokourov, A 10.00
Valverde, A 11.00
Landis, F 17.00
1 Any Other Rider 4.00

In local races, one can always count on a few consistently good racers to always win. Even though there is periodization, peaking and building up to target events, most of the consistent riders always win.

In pro cycling, it can be difficult to know who is going to win, and it always depends on the time of the year. The 2006 early season classics had Boonen cleaning up as expected. The late spring and early summer races have the Giro and TdF contenders on the startline. One never knows who of the TdF GC contenders is going for overall victory in these lead up races. And unfortunately, there can be something fishy in the syringe. A combo like this makes betting on cycling an interesting event. How many startling performances have come and gone throughout the last few years: Zubeldia, Rumsas, Heras, Mayo, Hamilton, Nozal, etc...

And there is always the swap a stage for the overall. A GC rider will forego the stage win to another rider as a token of sportmanship. What if you happen to bet on that stage?

I was looking forward to today's Dauphine stage up Bon Bon Two (it always sounded like that's what the announcers were saying). I was anxiously wondering whether Landis, Hincapie, Leipheimer, Zabriskie, Vinoukorov, Mayo, Kashechkin, Mancebo were going to show how their Tour form was coming along. As it were, Landis, Hincapie, Vinoukorov were either not up to the climb or they were hiding their form. I admit being disappointed. Why? Because I would have lost the bet on Landis or Vinoukorov having the legs to win the stage? Or maybe, I wanted to see a early TdF display of strength. I guess I'll have to wait three more weeks for that.