Wiggins tipped for Sports Personality of the Year
Bradley Wiggins has been heavily backed to become the third cyclist in five years to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award in London on Sunday.
Sir Chris Hoy topped the voting following his exploits at the 2008 Olympics and Mark Cavendish picked up the gong 12 months ago after sprinting to green jersey glory in the Tour de France.
Given that Wiggins enjoyed success in both events this year, securing the yellow jersey in the last-named event before bagging a time-trial gold medal at the London 2012 Games, it is easy to see why he is proving so popular with punters.
Coral have cut his odds from 1/3 to 2/7 after taking a monster bet of £20,000 in cash on the 32-year-old Team Sky rider, who heads the betting in front of heptathlon queen Jessica Ennis and dual long-distance Olympic champion Mo Farah.
“A betting shop customer in Manchester handed over a supermarket carrier bag full of money and asked how much he could have on Wiggins at 1/3!” said spokesman Gary Burton.
“As he isn’t a bad result for us at the moment, we took the lot and cut the price.”
BetVictor are offering punters the chance to name the first three in the correct order, with 7/2 available for Wiggins to win ahead of Farah in second and Ennis third, while it is 4/1 for Ennis to be runner-up behind Wiggins and Farah to finish in the bronze medal position.
“It promises to be a great evening after such a fantastic year of sport but which one of our Olympic champions will be crowned SPOTY?” said spokesman Charlie McCann.
“Wiggins has been favourite since winning the Tour but will the public get behind the cyclist in this vintage year as they did with Cavendish in a non-vintage 2011?”
Of the 12 Nominees, who gets your vote for SPOTY 2012?
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