PARIS, FRANCE – Alberto Contador is the strong 5/6 (bet $60 to make $50 profit) favorite to win the 2010 Tour de France.

Contador is as short as 8/13 with some bookies but Bet Fred has decided to take a stand against the reigning champion

Bookies rate him well clear of Andy Schlek at 5/1with Paddy Power and Lance Armstrong at 10/1.

Armstrong said in an interview this weekend that he expected Contador and Shleck to dominate the Tour and it would be tough for him to compete with them.

In an interview with Belgian newspapers De Telegraaf and Het Nieuwsblad, Armstrong said he would be more competitive in 2010, partly because he will be leading his own team. He said of Contador: “[he] will be very hard to beat. Like Andy Schleck. He is a very good rider, perhaps the best we ever saw.”

This year’s Tour is widely seen as favoring the climbers with four straight days in the mountain region between France and Spain and 23 categorised climb, three more than in 2009 and four more than in 2008.

Britain’s Bradley Wiggins is rated joint fourth favorite at 25/1, the same price as Ivan Basso. Wiggins will lead the new Sky team and admitted that he faces a tough battle against Contador.

“Contador’s the man to beat,” Wiggins told Sky. “Everybody keeps going on about winning the Tour and it’s a difficult thing. But the thing with this team is that we’ll give it a good go and do everything we can to be in the best possible shape to win it.

“We’re not going to try and get second, third, fourth, whatever, we’re going to try and win it, just as we did this year.

“But by far and away the man to beat at the moment is Contador and he’s set the benchmark, but we’ve done it with the track and I’m sure we’ll have a good go at doing it on the road.”

Others in the betting include Evans at 28/1, Gesink at 33/1, Menchov at 40/1 and Nibali at 40/1.

Tour de France 2010 Winner Betting

tags: 2010, alberto contador, andy schlek, betting, bradley wiggins, lance armstrong, odds, tour de france