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Tour De France Betting Update: The first rest day is over so how has the Tour gone for our cycling bettor?

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Jack Houghton looks ahead to the second half of the Tour, where Cadel Evans holds the upper hand over the field...

After Alejandro Valverde's dismal display on the Tourmalet, which saw him drop to 14th in the overall classifications, nearly five minutes behind race leader, Cadel Evans, I'm left with a lop-sided book on the event without a significant upside.

The smallish win bet I had on Valverde at [6.6] should probably be forgotten. The Spaniard is now trading at [110.0] and, whilst his Caisse d'Epargne team have vowed to fight on, claiming the stages yet to come in the Alps can still see their man prevail, it is difficult to see how he will overcome the time difference held by the riders ahead of him. It's likely a few will fail between now and Paris; but all 13 of them?

That leaves me with a slightly more hefty lay of Evans at [2.62]. With the Australian now trading at [1.92], I'm definitely on the wrong side of the bet, but I'm not in any great panic about it. During the build-up to the Tour, whenever anyone has asked, I've been robustly dismissive of Evans' chance. And although slightly less evangelical about it now, I'm still pretty confident he has less than a 50 per cent chance of winning: making any odds-on price a value lay. So during Wednesday's stage from Lannemezan to Foix, which should be fairly inconsequential from an overall classification point of view, I'll be concentrating on going back in to lay Evans at any price around the [1.9] mark.

On reading my preview article, a fellow Tour punter accused me of letting a sporting dislike of Evans get in the way of sound betting advice. It's true, those who have revelled in the sport in recent years - as the likes of the swashbuckling Lance Armstrong launched lung-bursting attacks on the most difficult of climbs - can only be bored by a potential Tour winner who does nothing but ride defensively. It is for more rational reasons, however, that I am still against him.

Although a strong time-trialist and a very competent climber, Evans, who survived a crash and injury scare on Sunday, does not have the benefit of a strong team to marshal his Tour for him. For all the focus on individual cycling stars like Armstrong and Miguel Indurain in recent times, not enough is made of the lieutenants and domestiques: the team-mates who chase down the breakaways and provide the sheltered progress required for a potential Tour winner to be able to put the big efforts in when required.

As this year's race moved into Pyrenees, it became obvious that Evans did not have the requisite strength-in-depth in his Silence team. Whereas other outfits were present in great numbers, the Australian was heavily self-reliant in dragging himself to the places he needed to be. Contrast this with the Danish team, CSC, managed by Tour legend Bjarne Riis. Content with virtual invisibility in the first week of the race, Frank Schleck and Carlos Sastre and an omnipresent CSC back-up crew began to look formidable in Monday's first monster stage - the dual climb of Tourmalet and Hautacam.

It is on the basis of this team strength that I'll also be having small back bets on Schleck at [14.5] and Sastre at [15.0]. That makes an Evans win a very bad result for me. But if the Australian is able to protect his lead in the circumstances he finds himself in, I'll be happy the money was spent seeing something special.

In other stage markets, Riccardo Ricco, despite trading odds-on, still looks like value to pick up the King Of The Mountains and White Jersey classifications. I've backed him at [1.8] in the former and [1.4] in the latter - prices still readily available. As an Italian, Ricco will be targeting the climb to Prato Nevoso and is on record as saying he wants to join the pantheon of Italian climbers to have won l'Alpe d'Huez. A strong showing in either would likely be enough to secure the Polka-dot Jersey. As far as the Young Rider classification (White Jersey) goes, he just needs to finish the Tour.

Victories for Ricco in both of these classifications would cover losses incurred by an Evans win in the main event. If Evans wins and Ricco fails... then it will be a Tour to forget for my betting bank.