Quick Guide to Watching and Understanding the Tour De France
Hi. You are probably a normal person.
You grew up somewhere in America and have no idea how to watch the Tour De France. For you a bike is a tool to cruise around the neighborhood. Maybe you joined a cycling club in town. And now yo are looking for a topic to talk about for your weekend ride. You have some questions in your head. How do I watch the Tour De France? What is the Tour De France?
Let’s get into it.
How do I watch the Tour De France?
There is no mystery that there is some difficulty watching the Tour De France. The race is filmed in Europe. Only a small fraction of Americans watched the Tour De France in 2018.
According to Statista,
Okay so where do I watch the Tour De France?
NBC Sports (Not Affiliate Link)
If you have cable, you may have this channel. You can even watch the race live, albeit, most races start between 05:00AM-07:00AM Central Time. Most races are 3.5–5 hours long. NBC Sports also offers replays of the coverage at night if that suits. BEWARE OF THE COMMERCIALS
NBC Sports Gold (Not Affiliate Link)
If you do not have cable this is your best bet. Even if you have cable this may be your best bet. For one annual payment of $54.99 USD, You will be able to watch the Tour De France and many other cycling races. And it is all commercial free. You can watch it live at work or stream later. Your subscription is good until May 1,2020.
I found it best to fork over the $55 bucks. You can watch two different broadcasts. Phil Liggett’s voice is the gold standard for cycling. I love the man. I really do. But for the love of God, please quit cutting to commercial Phil. Luckily NBC Sports Gold offers an ad-free option to stream.
Fubo.TV (Not Affiliate Link)
This online streaming service costs $44.99 a month + $11.99 a month for the cycling add on. Over the course of a year you will pay $683.76. Save your money and go with NBC Sports or NBC Sports Gold if you want to skip the commercials.
Good luck.There are not enough cycling fans in the US to get the streams up. Trust me it’s not worth the frustrations.
BONUS
“The Move” podcast by Lance Armstrong. (Available on Spotify)
Lance Armstrong speaks with various guests as the recap each stage of the race. This is the perfect podcast for someone trying to learn more about the sport. The commentary is on point. The stage previews are great as well.
What is the Tour De France?
The Tour is the Superbowl of cycling. It is the most important of the three grand tours. The others being the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a Espana.
The race began in 1903 as a ploy to sell more newspapers. Today it has grown to the most prestigious cycling race in the world. It consists of 21 stages of cycling and two rest days. Over the course of 23 days the riders will cycle 2,200 miles.
This riding doesn’t make any sense?
Maybe you watched a stage and you don’t understand why the riders race the way they do. Why would the leaders lie back in the peloton and let some nobody go out and get a stage win?
The riders compete for the General Classification (Total Time), stage wins, and points. Any individual rider can come out and win a stage, or win points, but only a small percentage of the total riders even have a chance at winning the General Classification. Unless, someone in the general classification contending goes out on the attack, their counterparts may just hunker down with them. By the time you get to stage 15, The GC riders have 20–30 minutes on some of the other riders. The current overall leader Julian Alaphilippe will probably hang with the main group unless he sees one of his real competitors go out on the attack.
All the riders are part of teams who work together to get their best rider to the finish. There are 20–22 teams with 8 riders each. Each rider has a bib. The rider with a bib ending in “1” is the team leader.
Type of Jerseys
When you win a take the overall lead or take the lead in a points category you are awarded with a special jersey. The riders will then wear these special jerseys during the next stage.
Yellow –Overall Leader- Rider with least total time
Green- Sprinter- Rider with most points from sprints
Polka Dot- King of the Mountains- Rider with most points from ascending the mountains
White Jersey- Overall Leader under 25- rider with least total time
Different Types of Stages
The race is pretty simple. But you may tune in some individual day and wonder what the hell is going on? Why is Egan Bernal racing alone? The answer lies in the different types of stages. There are 19 regular stages (my term). These stages are a mix of flat land, hilly terrain, and mountains. There are seven mountain stages in the 2019 Tour De France. Five of these stage will end on the peak of a mountain.
In my opinion the mountain stages are the most fun to watch because anything can happen. Riders will set out on early attacks. They will pick up the pace and try to really put the hammer on their competitors. However sometimes these riders don’t have enough stamina and they end up getting cooked on the mountains.
This year’s tour contains two time trials as well. The individual time trial will take place during Stage 13 on July, 19, 2019. In this stage each rider competes on his own against the clock.
There has also been one team time trial during Stage 2 on July 7, 2019. In this stage, each team competed against the clock on their own.
The two rest days will Tuesday July 16, 2019 & Monday July 22, 2019
If you have any further questions let me know.
