BRADLEY WIGGINS has been absolutely phenomenal in the Tour de France.
His effort in the three-week event – and that of his Team Sky colleagues – has been truly incredible and brilliant to watch.
Wiggins is clearly at the very top of his game and the achievement of winning this weekend is one we should not under-estimate.
If I sit on a bike in the gym for half an hour I’m absolutely knackered, so how on earth they pedal hundreds of kilometres, day after day, is quite beyond me.
And it’s far from flat - some of those mountain climbs are criminal and the physical enormity of it all is just unbelievable.
You would have to drag me up those hills tied to the back of a tractor, so my admiration for these top guys knows no bounds.
THE Open Championship is among the best four days of sport in the whole year.
We get wall-to-wall coverage on the BBC and for those of us who like a bet with our golf, you can put your feet up and wait for it all to unfold.
It is very tough trying to pick the winner of the Open because, over the years, there have been some players lifting the old Claret Jug at extremely long odds.
Even a couple of years ago we had Tom Watson finishing second in a play-off to Stewart Cink – and Tom started the tournament at 1500/1!
Most people, therefore, have an each-way bet when picking those they think have a chance of winning – we at Sky Bet pay the first six places at quarter the odds.
My two for this year – guys I backed before a ball had been struck yesterday – were Padraig Harrington and Ben Curtis.
The thing about yesterday’s play was that there was very little wind blowing across the links at Royal Lytham & St Annes.
Having said that, certainly in the early part of the day, very few birdies were being scored.
That means, if the wind picks up this weekend, it’s going to be chaos out on the course.
Some of the rough looks almost impossible to play out of and, if the wind picks up, only someone of proven strength (both mentally and in strokeplay) is really going to challenge.
I have gone for Harrington because he’s a great links player and the statistics show he’s been doing pretty well in America lately.
He is also twice a former winner, so he’s got the quality.
The stand-out statistic about Curtis is his driving, which ranks in the top three on the US Tour. Add to that the fact he seems to enjoy himself at the Open and is a previous winner, and I reckon he’s worth the punt.
The amazing thing about the Open, compared with even five years ago, is that bookmakers do so many different bets around the event.
Our odds compilers must get headaches just dreaming up some of the bets, and you can even get odds on each player doing a certain score at a certain hole.
The other bet which caught my eye was for the length of putt which will actually win the tournament.
You can get 8/13 on four feet or less, and it’s 6/5 on it being four and a half feet or more.
All I would say to anyone betting in-play, if they are watching the TV then the pictures are quite often a while after the actual action. So while you might think Westwood is in a good position after a birdie on the TV, he may actually just have driven into the rough in real time!
So be careful. But, most of all enjoy the golf and one of our greatest sporting events.
