Cycling and Cricket

A great sporting weekend. How can anyone any longer justify women tennis players getting the same prize money as men. Compare the Williams sisters work this week compared to Rafa and R-Fed - no comparison. Hamilton paddled round Silverstone and the British press have another youngster to build up and destroy in our Wimbledon Girls winner. But without further ado, lets move on to this wet week's tips.

11.30 Mark Cavendish to win stage e/w 9/2 (LOST +0.34 - the Peloton let the escapees build up too much of a lead into a tricky run-in, and couldn't close the gap. Cavendish was set up nicely, and picked up some time bonuses at the finish, but that doesn't pay our bills!)
Its been a while since we had such a stellar performer in road racing from Britain, but Mark Cavendish looks to have a bright future ahead of him. I don't expect him to finish the Tour this year - with the Olympics ahead he won't want to destroy himself in the mountains - but this will be even more reason why he will be looking topick up a stage win or two early in the race. He had 11 road race wins last season, and has 7 so far this year, with 2 stage wins in the Giro d'Italia. He didn't get a stage win last year, not being helped by getting involved in crashes in key sprints. An uphill finish on Sunday meant the usual first day sprint didnt happen, then yesterday's stage was undulating towards the finish so he couldn't get organised to hit the front at the right moment. But today's stage is much flatter, and with his teammates finishing 2nd and 3rd yesterday, they look in the right form to lead him out to win today's stage.

5.10 Yorkshire bt Durham 6/4, Northants beat Essex 11/10, and 17/4 double (LOST -0.66 - after the farce at Durham, the Graham Napier show was on again at Chelmsford as first his batting made it tough for our tip Northants, and then his bowling ripped away any remaining hopes)
Luck can play a large part in the shortened version of the game that is Twenty20, and with bad weather all over the UK today, it could play even more of a part, with the possibility of one or both of thes quarter finals being reduced to 5 overs a side. Then they are a lottery, so it may pay to back the outsiders for both, and chance your arm with a better than 4/1 double.