Stage 6 Preview

The course for tomorrows rather short courses – a 5km for the women and a 10km for the men – will see like sprints compared to today’s races. They will be in the classic style and the course appears to have a couple good climbs on it including one that rises 40 meters in elevation from the 1.9km to the 2.3km mark of the 5km loop. With only three stages left, the contenders have realistically been widdled down to 18 on the men’s side and only four in contention on the women’s side. Tomorrows race is the first true individual start and I expect the overall standings to be mixed up a little bit, even without any bonus seconds on the line.

On the men’s side, Bauer is the odds on favorite at 5.00. If you wanna make some money Babikov it at 101.00 to win, a pretty nice payout if he races like he did today. No one has seem to put out odds for the women as of yet, but for my money’s worth, I would have Saarinen taking the race.

Women
1. Aino Kaisa Saarinen
2. Justyna Kowalczyk
3. Petra Majdic

Men
1. Dario Cologna
2. Lukas Bauer
3. Axel Teichmann

Some more exits from the Tour include Angerer, who leaves due to sickness. As I incorrectly reported yesterday that Johaug went home after the Prague sprint, today she is officially going home now. She has yet to show the form that we all know she possess and must find it before the Olympics.

I almost forgot to mention that today Petter Northug’s turned 24. What’s a better way to celebrate you birthday than with a win? Probably with the Tour de Ski title.

Til Tomorrow.