Bookies still back Quintana over Contador despite Tour de France time loss

Nairo Quintana is second favourite, behind Chris Froome, to win the Tour de France, despite finding himself over a minute down on Alberto Contador already

Nairo Quintana training for the 2015 Tour de San Luis

(Image credit: Watson)

He may be over 90 seconds behind Chris Froome after two stages of the Tour de France, but the bookmakers are not willing to write Nairo Quintana off just yet.

The Colombian was held up by a crash in the peloton on the hectic stage two, which saw him stuck in the second group on the road, over a minute behind the group containing Froome and Alberto Contador.

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But the bookies are still favouring Quintana over Contador, despite the Spaniard sitting only 12 seconds behind Team Sky's leader, with odds of 13/5 (Bet 365) available on the Movistar rider.

Contador, meanwhile, is available at 7/2 at a number of online outlets - not much behind Quintana, but the punters are seemingly voting with their feet and still favouring the Colombian.

Froome remains the bookies' favourite to win the three-week race. With 19 stages left to go, Froome can be backed at 6/4 pretty much across the board.

With so many more treacherous stages left to come in the first week, these odds are still likely to change a lot, with at least one of the favourites likely to lose more time in the following stages.

Odds are taken from oddschecker.com and are correct at the time of publishing.

 Tour de France stage two highlights

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Stuart Clarke is a News Associates trained journalist who has worked for the likes of the British Olympic Associate, British Rowing and the England and Wales Cricket Board, and of course Cycling Weekly. His work at Cycling Weekly has focused upon professional racing, following the World Tour races and its characters.