Cycling Betting Odds

Cycling Betting Odds

Eric Uribe
By , Updated on: Jan 21, 2025 12:00 AM

Want to bet on cycling? Good — you’re in the exact right place. This page is fully dedicated to making sure you know every single there is to know about betting on cycling. Tips, latest odds, news, we got it all right here. Grasp this page entirely and you’ll be well on your way to taking advantage of lines set by the best online sportsbooks. Speaking of which, here’s five worth scoping out for all your cycling betting:

We’ll go ahead and call out the Tour de Frace, as it’s the single most bet-on event in the entire sport. The odds for the Tour de France 2025 are available — they’re up practically year-round. The odds are subject to change as a lot can happen from now until the event starts. But as it stands, these riders are favored to win the historic and grueling race during the summertime:

Tour de France Winners Odds 2025 Bovada BetUS MyBookie
Tadej Pogacar -133 -133 -145
Jonas Vingegaard +175 +200 +175
Remco Evenepoel +600 +600 +625
Primoz Roglic +2350 +2200 +2200
Juan Ayuso +2300 +2300 +2500
Joao Almeida +3300 +3300 +3300
Matteo Jorgenson +5000 +5000 +5000
Adam Yates +7000 +7000 +7000

Last updated on: January 21, 2025

Road cycling betting is more popular in Western Europe, with a focus on France, Spain, and Italy. The two most popular cycling competition formats include mass start events, where individuals start all at the same time, or time trials, where riders race alone and are seeking the best time.

Cycling is governed by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), and each major event can bring in over 500,000 roadside supporters and spectators each day. The major events in cycling have been around for roughly a century or more, meaning there is plenty of history behind each and every event in cycling.

It’s important to have all the important facts before betting on cycling as there are so many factors that could affect the outcome of a race. We will give you a brief introduction to the world of cycling, then teach you a little about cycling betting options and finally, find you a sportsbook that will be a good match for you to get started betting on cycling.

During the Olympics, sportsbooks offer odds on other cycling disciplines, such as mountain bike, BMX and track.

cycling betting

Road Cycling Race Types

There are multiple types of cycling races. Multiple. Over the course of a long season, you’ll find these types of races:

Single Day

You can expect any professional single day race distances to stretch as long as 180 miles, depending on the course and location. The courses can run from place to place, or riders will do laps of a particular circuit.

Time Trial

Individual time trial (ITT) has cyclists racing alone on a course, with the goal to have the fastest time. Team time trials (TTT) has the same idea, but the cyclists start the race at different times, and ride in a line, with each team member taking a turn riding in the front while the others sit behind.

Stage Races

Stage races consist of several races or states that are ridden consecutively. The rider with the lowest cumulative time (the fastest) is declared the winner. It can also be a series of road races and individual time trials. Some stage races can be three weeks long, and these stage races are called Tours – like the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France, and the Vuelta a España.

Ultramarathon

Another race type is the Ultramarathon, which is ultra-distance cycling – a long single-stage event where the clock runs from start to finish. These can last several days and the riders will take breaks at their convenience. Most riders require a team of staff to support them through this event due to some ultramarathons being over 3,000 miles long.

Types of Cyclists

Riders have different “styles.” That’s obvious, right? But the nuance here is that different styles fare differently from event to event based on how that race is structured. Figuring this out is one of the biggest keys to successful betting in the sport. FOr starters, here’s the type of riding styles:

  • Climber: a cyclist who can ride well on inclines or hilly courses and terrain.
  • Puncher: a cyclist who rides well on rolling terrain with short or steep hill climbs.
  • Time Trialist: a cyclist who can maintain high speeds for long periods of time.
  • Sprinter: a cyclist who can reach high speeds rather explosively and quickly.
  • Domestique: a team cyclist that works to serve the team or leader rather than win the race itself.
  • All-rounder: a versatile cyclist who is skilled at all forms of cycling including mountain biking.

cycling

Betting On The Grand Tours

The biggest events in the sport? They are the three Grand Tour events. All three are three-week events that push riders to their very limits. It’s why they typically draw the most betting attention. The three races are as follows:

Giro d’Italia

The Giro d’Italia was introduced in 1909, and runs through Italy, as well as passing through other neighboring countries. It is typically held in May and holds two-time trials and a passage through the Alps and Dolomites. There are usually 21 stages over a 24 day period with two to three rest days.

The Tour de France

Introduced in 1903 and widely known around the world as the most popular of all the Grand Tours, the Tour de France never ceases to disappoint. Held in France in July, the Tour de France is a multiple-stage cycling event with 21 stages that occurs over a 23 day period. It is by far the most prestigious and most difficult race in cycling. Lance Armstrong’s success in this race put the Tour de France on the map in North America — despite his past wins being tainted by a doping scandal.

Vuelta a España

The ‘Tour of Spain’ or Vuelta a España, is the youngest of the Grand Tours, with the first edition planned for 1935, but with the Spanish War and World War II, the first edition wasn’t held until 1955. The Vuelta is a UCI World Tour event, meaning that participants and teams are mostly UCI World Teams – making the tournament very prestigious. The tour always goes through the Pyrenees mountains and finishes in Madrid with 21-day states over a 23 day period.

cycling wagering

Popular Cycling Betting Options

Don’t think cycling betting is like other sports. If you’re accustomed to moneylines, spreads, or totals — forget about it. That’s not really a thing in cycling. Instead, the bet types fall into these categories:

Bet on Cycling Futures

Any major cycling event will have futures on the winner of the event. So for instance, looking at the Tour de France, they will have a list of the riders participating, with the riders that are most likely to win at the top. Futures will have higher odds but will be a riskier bet to place as there are so many cyclists to bet on.

These odds are usually live as soon as an event is announced, you can usually place your wagers months in advance and find some real value – if you’re right (easier said than done in an unpredictable sport like this).

Race Winner Betting

For any race, you can place a race winner wager, which is basically the same as a futures bet, but you can do this for any race – not just the big marquee events. You simply select which cyclist you think will win. We suppose this is like a moneyline wager.

Top 3 Finish

If you’re familiar with golf betting, they have a similar betting option. The top three finish allows a slight margin of error if you aren’t sure that your cyclist will win, but you think he may place in the top three, you can place that wager with reduced odds. This can be a popular option as your rider only has to place third or above for your bet to cash.

Top 10 Finish

This cycling betting type is the same as above, you get even more reduced odds and your rider just has to place tenth or better. More chances to win essentially means less risk, thus less reward. No surprise there.

Stage Betting

If you feel that a rider would do better in a particular stage of the race (Grand Tour events are broken into stages), you can bet on a rider to win a certain stage of the race. Each stage will have betting odds, so it makes it easier if you know the rider’s style and if they are better in mountain terrain – maybe they would win the stage of the race through the mountains.

Cycling

Best Cycling Betting Sites

Alright, you know the races, you know the bet types, but here’s the last thing you need to bet on the sport: a reliable sportsbook. But hey, we got you covered here. We’ve hand-picked the five best betting sites to bet all things cycling. Here’s our trusty top-five list:

Bovada

Bovada is probably the most-used offshore sportsbook in the world — and for good reason too. This site is good any way you slice it — betting menu, ease of use, trust factor, and so on. You can visit Bovada and know you’ll be treated well, whether you’re betting on cycling or any other sport it offers. Stop by here for one of the smoothest playing experiences around.

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BetOnline

What stands out about BetOnline is just how deep its sportsbook goes. Every sport, every line is seemingly offered here and at top-of-the-line prices too (bettors always get bang for their buck here). Of course, that applies to cycling too. Any race that’s upcoming is sure to have odds up at BetOnline. It’s all but guaranteed that you won’t miss a single beat betting on BetOnline.

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BetUS

Come to BetUS if you want to bet on cycling for free. How so, you ask? Well, BetUS is the most giving bookmaker in terms of promotional bonuses — and no one comes close to them. New players can earn up to $6000 in free play upon signing up and creating an account. Money like that is hard to come by at other bookies. It’s perfect for leveraging your next cycling bet.

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MyBookie

Free-play bonuses are also a huge selling point of MyBookie. Any time you deposit money on here to wager on cycling (or another sport), you’ll get free play courtesy of MyBookie. The site offers both sign-up and reload bonuses. The latter of which is truly a lifetime deal. So if you plan on betting cycling for the long haul, it quite literally pays to play it at MyBookie thanks to such bonuses.

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BetNow

A lot of the things we said about the other bookies also applies to BetNow. It has a well-stocked betting menu. It has bevy of good-paying bonuses, especially the sportsbook rebate which is unheard of industry-wide. It has a long-standing reputation in the industry so no “funny business” here with your hard-earned money. All this makes BetNow a well-rounded betting experience that can service bettors of all types.

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Top Cycling Betting Sites

Now that you have an idea of the popular cycling betting types, it’s time to find an online sportsbook to start placing those wagers. Not all online sportsbooks offer betting for it, by the way. It's a bit of a niche sport and some bookies stick to the more popular stuff like football, soccer, and basketball. However, the bookies list above will for sure have cycling betting lines — we've checked in the past.

Reading sportsbook reviews can greatly help in selecting an online sportsbook (the table above has our unbiased reviews). We would read these closely as choosing the right book is half the battle anyway. Trust us, you want a bookmaker that offers the best bonuses and features — to stretch out your bucks as best as possible.

Meet the author

Eric Uribe

Born and raised in Nevada, Eric was exposed to the world of sports betting at an early age. He yearned to be 21 just to hit the sportsbook, and when that day finally came, he became a regular at the smoke-filled room, sweating out bets with sketchy characters. Eric'...

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