Admittedly, worldwide cycling is not as popular as, let's say: football, baseball or basketball. The same applies for gamblers. However, it is doing some serious catching up. Betting on cycling has therefore been more than worthwhile for some time now: both in terms of profitability and in terms of fun. Because it is slightly less 'big', there are also more ways to outsmart the bookmakers in an original, surprising way. At Ladbrokes we are of course more than sporty enough to guide you through this rewarding pastime!
Especially in Belgium, where cycling is traditionally extremely popular, as a fan, you really get to know everything about the riders. Chances are they sometimes pass by your front door during a training session. In all fairness, this advantage is somewhat outweighed by the growing online attention for the sport. These days, there are fans in all corners of the world and they also have all possible information to monitor the riders. It is characteristic of the culture of the sport: cyclists are accessible and open. It is mainly the biggest asset for those who want to engage into some nice cycling predictions. Before you get started, we at Ladbrokes would like to explain the basics of betting on cycling.
The options for betting on cycling are very numerous. You can bet on just about any achievement of a race. After all, cycling is about much more than just a bunch of athletes who aim to be the first to cross a finish line. Within the same stage, you often have youth classifications, attacking classifications, intermediate sprints, breakaways that may or may not last long… in short: tales can be written about every cycle race.
Not to mention the races that span over several days or even weeks. There are also various rankings on which you can bet in advance and live. How many stages does this rider win? And how often is this athlete on the podium? Who will win the Combatant Trophy? Who crowns himself mountain king?... You get the picture; here too the various plot twists are quite numerous and spectacular.
Because there are so many different sub-disciplines in cycling, there is no single rider who is favorite everywhere. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. A big tour specialist will usually not be on top in the spring classics, a sprinter often falls short on long climbs… You need to keep those differences in mind every time.
And then there's the team aspect. A sprinter who cheers at the end of a stage almost always owes this to the efforts of a whole team that dropped him off nicely after a whole day's toil to successfully complete this teamwork
In fact, it comes down to finding those cycling predictions that give you the most pleasure and the greatest chances of winning. Knowledge about the competition and the field of participants is indispensable.
The Flemish and Italian classics, such as Milan-San Remo or the Tour of Flanders are great fun and lucrative for those who know how the one-day specialists are doing, but most of the attention (and therefore also the information to be gathered and profit to be made) is on the grand tours: The Giro d'Italia, the Vuelta and the Tour De France.
Let's start with the holy grail: the Tour de France. The Tour is without a doubt the most prestigious, important and popular cycling race in the world. It is therefore the annual fixed appointment for the absolute world top. At Ladbrokes, you will find all possible cycling bets to enjoy not only the competition and the beautiful landscape, but also the many internal competitions, random events and of course possible nice wins for yourself.
Another big cycling event is the Giro D'Italia. For this stage race too, the options to score with your cycling predictions are simply huge at Ladbrokes. The Giro is the first Grand Tour of the year, so insights about the preparations and the results in the spring races are more than useful here!
Then of course there is the last big tour of the year: the Vuelta D'España. Not all riders who participated in the tour appear at the start of the Vuelta, on the contrary. Understandable when you know how heavy, intense and devastating such a large competition can be. However, you can usually collect quite a bit of information about the performances earlier in the season. This means your cycling predictions for the Vuelta can be well thought out… a good thing for those who take their research seriously.
It's not just knowledge about performances in preparation or during one season that is helpful; a cycling career can be quite long, on average around 12 years. During that career you learn a lot about what conditions are favorable for a rider, what he excels in, what is absolutely not his or her cup of tea… That information is extremely relevant for your cycling predictions this season. Moreover: it can be truly decisive for mutual duels or 'matchup' bets. A good classic rider will not win against a very specific cobblestone specialist in Paris-Roubaix. Even so, a rain specialist has an advantage in wet weather, even when the surface may not be his thing.
During their career, riders often change their specialty or favorite discipline. The physique of a person changes. A sprinter can turn out to become a decent lap rider or foreman. What we have seen a lot in recent years, is how cyclo-cross riders manifest themselves very well in the peloton on asphalt races. These are all factors to take into account in your cycling predictions.
Cycling is an extremely layered sport, especially when it comes to betting. This makes things very exciting and explains the spectacular rise of this sport among the bookmakers. At Ladbrokes, you are in the right place: true passion is fairly rewarded here!