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The 2024 Tour de France has made it to the second and final rest day with Tadej Pogacar in control of the race for the yellow jersey.
The Tour de France continues to live up to expectations with Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard in a two-way battle to be top of the podium in Nice.
It is a battle that has swung one way, and then the other, but as the peloton enjoys its final day of rest, it is Team UAE Emirates and Pogacar that will be the happier.
However, there is still a long way to go and with the Alps on the horizon in the final week of the Tour de France, Pogacar has not got the job done just yet.
The winners of the green, white and polka dot jerseys also have to be decided, so it is shaping up to be an exciting final week at the Tour.
Pogacar dominates in the Pyrenees
Pogacar took a firm grip on the yellow jersey following two epic stage wins in the Pyrenees and he is now priced at 1.083 to win the Tour de France.
The Slovenian superstar won both Stages 14 and 15, to open up a 3 minute 9 second lead over Vingegaard at the top of the general classification.
It is a lead that will take some overhauling and Vingegaard is priced at 9.00 to do it, and in-turn, win his third Tour de France in a row.
However unless there is a dramatic turnaround in the final week, Pogacar will be wearing the yellow jersey when the Tour de France reaches its conclusion in Nice on Sunday.
There was a suggestion that Vingegaard had landed a huge psychological blow when he edged out Pogacar in a sprint finish to win Stage 11.
Heading into the Pyrenees, many believed that Vingegaard was looking good to claim the yellow jersey, but Pogacar had other ideas.
He attacked on both Saturday and Sunday and Vingegaard had no response.
Now Visma-Lease a Bike have to try and come up with a masterplan to turn things around in the final week, but it is quite literally an uphill battle, with Pogacar looking so strong.
Meanwhile, Remco Evenepoel remains in third place on the general classification, 2 minutes 10 seconds behind Vingegaard.
However, the Belgian also leads Joao Almeida by over five minutes, so a place on the podium looks to be in the bag barring any disasters.
Philipsen back in the game
Jasper Philipsen finally came alive at the Tour de France as he picked up a couple of stage wins at the Tour de France.
The sprinter won both Stage 10 and Stage 13 to put some pressure on Biniam Girmay in the race to win the green jersey.
Girmay, who has three stage wins at the Tour after taking out Stage 12, leads the points classification with 363 points.
He is priced at 1.062 to win the points classification, with Philipsen who sits on 277 points, available at 13.00.
Meanwhile Evenepoel is on course to win the young rider classification, while Pogacar also has a healthy lead for the king of the mountains.
