Tour de France: Cavendish takes two from three as Froome remains favourite

Mark Cavendish is rapidly closing in on Eddy Merckx’s record of Tour de France stage wins, after a flying start from the Team Dimension Data rider saw him claim two of the Tour’s opening three Stages.

Cavendish won Stages one and three, to move onto a total of 28 on the Tour, just six behind Belgium ledend Merckx.

Meanwhile in the early fight for the General Classification, Froome is odds-on at 10/11 after a steady start for the Team Sky rider.

The two-time Yellow Jersey winner is handily in contention just 14 seconds off early leader Peter Sagan, and Froome has already seen one of his expectant rivals in trouble.

Contador had been as short as 3/1 before the Tour began on Saturday, but the two-time champion is now 20/1 after a heavy fall on the opening Stage, followed by another incident on Stage two.

Froome’s likely challenger is now Nairo Quintana, the man who pushed the Englishman so hard 12 months ago.

A year on and the Movistar rider is in better shape than ever to win the Tour, and after three Stages he’s tied with Froome 14 seconds off the pace.

It’s 6/4 Colombian Quintana claims his first General Classification, but it’s still very early days.

Fabio Aru has seen his odds come in from 18/1 to 12s, but it remains to be seen how his Astana team play it further down the line should Vincenzo Nibali enter the fray.

But it’s so far so good for Froome, with the Mountainous stages still to come.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.