Champagne still in hand, Tour de France hero Egan Bernal has been installed as 2/1 (+200) favourite to be crowned champion again in 2020, over his former team leaders Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas.

The odds may be with him in the Tour de France 2020 betting, but do they really represent the chances of the Colombian landing back-to-back victories in cycling's blue riband?

Going into the 2019 Tour de France, Bernal was the stand-out in the betting, with his Team Ineos looking for a seventh win in eight renewals, and without star rider Chris Froome through injury.

They also had question marks over defending champion Geraint Thomas, who had crashed out of the Tour de Suisse two weeks before the start of the Grand Tour.

This put Bernal on co-leader status with Thomas and, after some dubious tactical calls by the team, he proved far too strong for the Welshman in the high mountains, during what was the highest Tour in history. But can he do it again?

Team Ineos bid for eight

Topping the odds at 2/1 (+200), with some sportsbooks offering as short as 6/4 (+150) about the 22-year-old, the UK’s top bookies certainly think Bernal can, and they reckon Thomas will be relegated back to domestique duties, pricing him at odds of 15/2 (+750).

It would be foolish to back against Team Ineos, the team formerly known as Team Sky, given their incredible Tour de France record, so it's no surprise that Froome is the 4/1 (+400) second favourite behind Bernal.

Bernal rode for Froome, and later Thomas when he took the yellow jersey, in 2018 – the Colombian's first Tour, and was an exceptional ally in the mountains. But a year on, we were robbed of clues as to whether he could prove stronger than him.

It is likely they will start the 2020 Tour de France as co-leaders, in the same way Thomas and Bernal did in 2019, with all the complicated politics that go along with such a tactic. Then, Bernal will be merely 23, and Froome will be 35, seeking his fifth Tour de France win.

But will that Tour suit Bernal as ideally as this one? Born in Bogota, and raised at an altitude of 2,650m, few could have been more prepared for three mountain-top finishes above 2,000m.

The poor weather that truncated stages 19 and 20 - around those high climbs - could deter future Tours from emulating such altitude tests though.

Betting Placed Tour Riders

Finishing in third, 1'31" behind Thomas, was not enough to impress the bookies for Steven Kruijswijk, who has been installed at 33/1 (+3300) to go two better.

His team, Jumbo-Visma, particularly Laurens De Plus, rode themselves into the ground up the Tour's final, 33km climb to get their leader on to the podium, Kruijswijk claiming he had planned to attack on the final, abandoned climb, the day before.

But the younger German, Emanuel Buchmann, who finished fourth, had shown greater confidence in the mountains, finishing fourth on the Col du Tourmalet, and clear of everyone bar Thibait Pinot and Egan Bernal at Prat D'Albis.

That was his first top 10 finish in the Tour de France, and he is as short as 22/1 (+2200) to improve next year.

The other top 10 finisher worth noting in the 2020 betting is Mikel Landa at 28/1 (+2800), who should be riding for a new team, while Simon Yates, who rode his first two Tour stage wins this year, is only 16/1 (+1600).

He was employed to assist Mitchelton-Scott leader Adam Yates, his twin brother, but when his chances died on the Tourmalet, he was freed to ride for himself. Those odds suggest he could begin next year's Tour as he ended this.

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Odds on French Tour win

What might have been rang deafeningly through the Groupama FDJ bus on Sunday night, as they left Paris without team leader Thibaut Pinot.

The Frenchman had started the third and final week in fourth position, after stellar performances in the Pyrenees. He was just 1'50" down on Julian Alaphillippe in the yellow jersey and priced at odds of 6/5 (+120) to become the first French winner in 34 years.

However, in avoiding a crash that Wednesday, Pinot tore a muscle in his thigh, leading to the heart-rendering scenes on Friday as he abandoned the race in floods of tears.

Whilst he had attacked in the mountains, his Tour de France 2020 odds of 11/2 (+550) are short, given that the 29-year-old has failed to finish half of the Grand Tours he has started.

Pinot is the highest of the French riders in the 2020 betting, Tom Dumoulin, who missed this year's race through injury, next at 13/2 (+650) and Alaphilippe available at odds of 14/1 (+1400), having held the yellow jersey for 13 stages this year.

His weakness was the high mountains, where he was reliably dropped by the big General Classification favourites, but on every descent he caught them with his daredevil freefalling.

The other big French hope in the Tour de France 2020 betting is Romain Bardet; his General Classifications hopes disintegrated in the final week, but he saved his Tour by landing the Polka Dot jersey for climbers.

That capitulation makes him 100/1 (+10000) to win overall in 2020.

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