Sir Bradley Wiggins’ hopes of adding the Giro d’Italia title to his heap of other honours were put off for another year following Team Sky’s decision to withdraw the Englishman from this year’s race due to illness.

The 33-year old has slipped off the pace after a decent start, with results later confirming Wiggins was suffering from a chest infection. He lost time on stage four after being caught behind a crash, before falling in wet conditions on stage seven and then suffering a mechanical fault in stage eight’s time-trial.

Stage 12 saw his biggest losses, though. Wiggins picked up his chest infection in the 24 hours prior and never looked in contention on a flat day played out in heavy rain. With the Tour de France coming up in only a few weeks, Team Sky made the decision to withdraw the four-time Olympic gold medallist in order for him to recover in time for the season’s showpiece event – something to consider if you have a Tour de France free bet to place.

“The decision was made with a view to being back to full strength for the Tour. Had we continued in this Giro, the risk was that I did more damage long-term, so I think the team have taken the decision to put a stop to it now and start thinking about getting back to full strength for the Tour.”

“I am disappointed, but some things you can’t control. It is really disappointing to stop in this way because we came here for so much more,” admitted Wiggins – who was desperate to add the Giro d’Italia 2013 title to his Tour de France crown.

When it comes to the Tour, Wiggins is still widely expected to be set to play a supporting role to Chris Froome in Team Sky’s bid to keep the yellow jersey in their possession.

Tennis betting punters planning to place a French Open bet this year should seriously consider backing Agnieszka Radwanska to exit early after the world number four continued to show poor form heading into the clay Slam.

Radwanska, 24, has struggled to adapt to the change of surfaces this spring and carries very little clay practice into Roland Garros, which begins on 27 May.

Having lost in the second round of the Madrid Open to Britain’s Laura Robson, the Pole appeared set to impress at Rome’s Italia Masters given the freedom she acquired to practise further on clay.

However, a disastrous three-set defeat at the hands of world number 64 Simona Halep now leaves her French Open preparations in tatters and her odds of winning at Roland Garros have skyrocketed.

Despite being ranked fourth in the world, Radwanska is seventh favourite to win the event in the French Open betting, and is currently priced on Betfair at 48.00. To lay the 2012 Wimbledon finalist a price of 95.00 is available, but that is likely to decrease as we near the tournament.

Clay is certainly not Radwanska’s strong point and many betting fans believe she is in fact focussing on Wimbledon this year, rather than the French. Her best result at Roland Garros is the fourth round – where she has crashed out three times – and don’t expect this year to see an improvement.

Instead, tennis punters should side with favourite Serena Williams or defending champion Maria Sharapova. It may sound a little bit too straight forward but this pair are streaks ahead of the rest and are bound to meet in the final.

Serena has not won the French Open crown since 2002 while Sharapova is looking to be the first woman to defend the title since Justine Henin in 2007. With these two in such good form Radwanska really does have no chance and punters should lay her accordingly.

Tiger Woods is set to dominate the PGA Tour once again this summer after the world number one recorded a huge milestone during his victory at the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass last weekend.

The 37-year-old finished two ahead of the field to pick up his fourth trophy in seven 2013 tournaments and justify his status as favourite in the odds on golf to win both the US Open and Open Championship later this summer.

If ever Woods is to win another major it is this year, for the American’s fourth title of the season is his greatest yield since 2009, before his acrimonious fall from grace.

Since 2009 Woods has seen his title haul slip to zero in 2010, two in 2011 and three last term. Securing a fourth title so early on in this season is a real indication he is ready to reach the dizzying heights of 2006, where Woods earned nine Tor titles including the Open and PGA Championship.

2006 was a golden year for Woods and although the chances of winning two majors this term are slim, many betting fans believe he is in the right frame of mind to repeat the feat.

He came desperately close to the Masters title this spring, finishing tied fourth, and even when he hasn’t performed still makes the cut each outing. While driving has never been much of a problem Woods struggled for confidence with the putter over the past two years and only now are we witnessing a determined, confident player return to the greens.

Woods even pinpointed handling the tricky greens at Sawgrass as something he must improve on before the majors this summer and certainly he still has his bad moments.

Yet overall Woods appears back at his best and with very little competition coming from the top-ranked players in the PGA betting fans should seriously consider the 14-time major winner a safe bet to claim the US Open and Open Championship crowns.

Watching the HP Byron Nelson Championship? Betfair has a trio of bets for the opening day three-balls.

Although Jim Bolger’s brilliant Dawn Approach remains a hot 7/4 favourite to follow his Qipco 2000 Guineas success with victory in the Investec Derby on June 1, Aidan O’Brien has a formidable team of at least six potential candidates for the blue riband contest, four of them having landed significant trials in the last week.

No final plans have yet been announced for his team by the master of Ballydoyle as O‘Brien waits to see how his two potential Group 2 Betfred Dante contenders, Indian Chief and Mars, go in the final major trial for the showcase Epsom contest.

Both horses have prospects of success on the Knavesmire and may well add to the victories the previous week of Ruler of The World in the Group 3 Chester Vase; Magician, who impressively landed the Group 3 Dee Stakes at the same fixture; Nevis, who came home clear in a sub-standard renewal of the listed Lingfield Derby Trial, and Battle of Marengo, winner of the Group 3 Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial at Leopardstown on Sunday.

Bookmakers currently rate Battle of Marengo (5/1) the shortest priced O’Brien-trained runner in the ante-post Derby market, despite him failing to please all observers with no more than a workmanlike success against three rivals in the key Irish trial.

Ruler of the World (10/1) won by a wide margin at Chester, but looks to be more of a St Leger candidate, while Magician (20/1) was arguably the most impressive of the Ballydoyle Derby trial winners after showing a ready change of gear on the Roodeye. Nevis (33/1) is not considered a leading light of the yard, despite his Lingfield success.

Mars (12/1) and Indian Chief (25/1) will complete the final pieces of the O’Brien Derby puzzle at York, after which there should be one or two significant changes to the ante-post Derby betting list, a point worth remembering if you have a Royal Ascot free bet.

Looking for more from the Channel 4 Racing Tips? Leading Oaks fancy no good thing in Musidora Stakes.

A difficult season is now behind the Duke Blue Devils and they have to now turn their focus to 2013-14. We presume there will be big changes to the roster, although the NCAAB betting suggests they should still have high hopes of challenging for a national championship.

Looking ahead though it will be a completely different look for the Blue Devils with the senior trio of Seth Curry, Ryan Kelly and Mason Plumlee all departed. They were, it could be argued, the most vital pieces in the Blue Devils run to the Elite Eight and they will take some replacing.

For many teams losing three players of that calibre would be too difficult to overcome but they have the where with all to restock with quality replacements that will grow into a formidable group.
However, like every season, a new roster brings positive and negative effects that can impact the journey towards superiority throughout the course of a year.
On the positive side Duke look to have added depth next year with a bench that can produce this time rather than just relying on their front-five. Not only will the depth be much improved, but so will the overall athleticism of the team.

Just take a look at this group of names – Jabari Parker, Rodney Hood, Rasheed Sulaimon, Andre Dawkins, Alex Murphy, Matt Jones and Semi Ojeleye – they bring many talents but the main one that they bring is athleticism and coupled with that depth of their roster it would point towards a successful new season.

However there are some negatives that will need attention for Duke to really kick into gear, the first of those would be whether they overcome any problems they might have with their frontcourt, which for a variety of reasons can look flawed on occasions. The biggest question mark will be over the fitness of Marshall Plumlee the biggest player on that frontcourt. He needs to return from injury and how well that goes could have a big impact on Duke’s season.

They also have to address their most glaring flaw from last year and that was their woeful rebounding statistics which saw them ranked 213th in the country. The team’s rebounding numbers need to improve considerably next season to help them become elite.

Most betting news outlets suggest that if Duke can make sure that the positives outweigh the negatives then another run at a national championship is well within their reach, even though the roster has undergone plenty of changes this year.

It’s the news no Miami Marlins fan wanted to hear: star player Giancarlo Stanton is expected to be sidelined for at least a month after suffering a hamstring injury on Monday night.

The outfielder suffered a grade-two strain when diving to meet a grounder during Miami’s 15-inning win over New York Mets and was immediately placed on the 15-day DL.

Unfortunately for Marlins fans betting MLB World Series, it appears Stanton will be out for much longer than 15 days and manager Mike Redmond must now reconfigure hit team and rely on someone else to find the runs.

Not that Stanton has been overly prolific this season, but the NL’s top slugger in 2012 had appeared to be emerging from a slump before this injury. Stanton hit his first homer of the season on Saturday and there was hope in the betting world he would improve into May.

Now, any momentum gained over the past week is gone and the 23-year-old must start his season afresh when he returns.

“It’s just one of those freak things,” he told ESPN.com. “There’s never a good time, but this was probably one of the worst times to do it.”

Miami were lucky they didn’t miss Stanton on Tuesday night as they narrowly beat New York 2-1 at Marlins Park. They came from behind in the final inning for the second consecutive game to beat the Mets and despite this team failing to make the hits they are winning baseball games.

Granted, they are still the worst team in the NL with a 8-19 record after their first month of the season but there is a lot of baseball still to be played before the summer is out.

Although few MLB betting news pundits believe they have what it takes to even come third in the NL East, at least Miami have proven capable of winning games at home recently and that should mean they can survive without Stanton.

Mako Vunipola has had one of the fastest rises in modern-day rugby this year and after one full season at Saracens is likely to earn a call-up to the 2013 Lions Tour this summer, according to Betfair’s Will Greenwood.

Vunipola, 22, made only his first Premiership start of his career last autumn yet immediately found his feet in the Saracens side, picking up 15 appearances as the team canter to a first-place finish in the English top flight.

His performances earned him a call-up to Stuart Lancaster’s England squad and nine caps later few fans in the betting world would begrudge him an automatic place in the side.

So good has his season been that Saracens boss Mark McCall has earmarked him as a dead cert to make Warren Gatland’s Lions pack:

“As a ball carrier, a decision maker, a defender and someone who can get over the ball, I haven’t seen a loose-head prop like that before,” McCall told Betfair.com.

“He’s done well with England. He’s a very young loose-head, but I think he can go to Australia and do a good job for the Lions.”

Indeed, a steely forward with formidable strength, Vunipola has all the qualities of a loose-head and with him in the side Saracens have evolved from an average side to Heineken Cup semi-finalists.

He impressed during the Six Nations and was unlucky not to earn more credit for those performances, although they were enough to effectively put rival Andrew Sheridan’s hopes of a recall to bed.

At 22 Vunipola has a lot to offer Saracens and England but rarely does the opportunity to make a Lions Tour come along and betting fans should be left in no doubt Gatland’s chances of success will increase should this forward be given his opportunity.

Week 3 is now finished and we can start to draw the threads together and identify winners and losers.

First up it was interesting to see how the offence went at North Carolina State, they of course have lost starting quarterback Mike Glennon to the upcoming NFL Draft and that was always going to be a problem to overcome, another may be the installation of a no-huddle offence under new head coach Dave Doeren. The Wolfpack introduced that particular innovation to their fans on Saturday and the number of miscues and mistakes made it hard to watch and it will need plenty of offensive work over the next few months to get things clicking offensively.

Another stumbling and bumbling offence revealed itself in Knoxville with the Tennessee Volunteers still looking for a quarterback and the spring game not making things any clearer. Justin Worley was 8-of-18 for 123 yards in the game and his counterpart, Nathan Peterman, went 9-of-23 for 98 yards. We can accept the Volunteers lost plenty of receiving talent from last year but the quarterback showing wasn’t electric and on this form Tennessee will need to do plenty of work to get this duo up to speed.

But enough bad news as there were some things to like from the spring games not least the good things that Penn State Head Coach Bill O’Brien is doing after he took over a program that was in turmoil and gained eight victories. We reckon that he took another large step in winning over the fan base (if any were needed) when he called the plays in the spring game over the PA system, nothing secret was revealed but what a thrill it must have been for the fans to hear the plays called “live”; that PR makes O’Brien a huge winner in our eyes.

There is often some fun and games to be had in spring games and that certainly happened with defensive tackle Louis Nix for Notre Dame. Nix is more used to plugging holes and stuffing the run on defence and not taking snaps but that’s exactly what happened as on what looked to be a designed draw play he took the ball in for a two point score, Head Coach Brian Kelly certainly putting some fun into the game and making Nix a winner on offence for a change.

At least the spring games gave us a chance for some football, now all we have to do is wait for the real action to start in four months time and find some real winners and losers then.

Don’t forget to head over to bet365 for all the latest NCAAF stories, odds, news, tips and advice, plus everything else punters who like to bet on NCAAF need.

It’s been quite a vapour trail that star prospect Andrew Wiggins has been leaving across the country as he has participated in a mass of All-Star games, scouting showcases and exhibition games.
That came after he had led Huntington Prep to a 30-3 season and became one of the hottest prospects in the country. Now we are all waiting to see what college he attends.

All of those showcase games are now over and it’s time for Wiggins, who is a Canadian native, to sit down and make a calm and informed decision as to which college he attends next season. There are reports the star prospect recently cancelled visits to Kansas, UNC and Florida State, who were three of his four schools on a potential shortlist for his services.

That led to many betting news writers thinking Wiggins has already made up his mind to declare that he is going to Kentucky. That’s a possibility as he has already made an official visit to the Wildcats in late April when he met with Coach John Calipari and his staff, although his coach from high school is citing exhaustion as the reason Wiggins cancelled other visits.

He’ll still talk to these schools though; the coveted recruit will just speak to the Jayhawks’ Bill Self, Tar Heels’ Roy Williams and Seminoles’ Leonard Hamilton via telephone, which obviously isn’t as personal and influential as an official visit but still gives those schools a shot a recruiting the young star.

But we are coming nearer to the end of the spring signing period and there are no games left to showcase his talents so it must be the perfect time to make his highly anticipated decision as to his final destination. Wiggins has had plenty of time and many opportunities to mull over his choices and should have a clear answer in his heart by now.

Four fanbases will be waiting with bated breath as will a public who want to know where the star is going, so surely Wiggins will end the speculation soon and announce where he will be heading in the near future – we think that Kentucky is very much the favourite in the NCAAB betting but don’t rule out UNC who still have a shot at landing the top prospect.