posted Jul 1, 2008

ITV4 are showing live coverage at weekends and on a 'red button' service everyday. This is available on both freeview and digi-sat. The bad news is you'll have to put up with Phil n' Paul, but then anything is better than DH on E/S.

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posted Jul 2, 2008

but you could change the bbc1 schedule at last minute to squeeze in any chance of british stage win - you managed it for the tennis on monday.......so no excuse

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posted Jul 2, 2008

For those of you looking for live text commentary, as good as the BBC is I prefer to use the official TDF website, www.letour.fr. This also has live text in English, as well as stage profiles showing the current position of the peleton, live time gaps between breakaway riders, etc. In the past they have updated the commentary every couple of minutes (as opposed to every 10-15 minutes for the BBC) so you can really keep up to speed with the action.

It does mean you tend to spend half your day hitting the refresh button though, and the yellow screens are a little more conspicuous than the BBC's plain white if you're trying to be discreet at work!

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posted Jul 2, 2008

Phil S, would the BBC be interested in buying the rights for the TDF?

After our sackful of track medals in Manchester and hopefully more in Beijing, the sport of cycling is starting to grab the attention of the British public.

With the prospect of maybe having a British team competing in a couple of years, I think that this would be a great addition to the BBC portfolio.

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posted Jul 2, 2008

igmeister - where are you seeing that ITV are doing coverage everyday via a red button service?

correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this is the case. but i'd be more than happy to 'put-up' with Phil n' Paul if that was the case (er, surely they're the best cycling commentary team?!).

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posted Jul 2, 2008

I think the best live commentary for the Tour is on www.cyclingnews.com. They cover the whole stage every day and update the commentary after every entry, i.e every 1-3 minutes. They are also very lively written and give a lot of extra information, e.g. riders quote's or info on the route etc.

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posted Jul 4, 2008

As a Dutch expat, I just listen online to Dutch Radio TDF. They have full-time live reports from the race every day between 1pm and 6pm. On Dutch TV it is also live every day from 2pm to finish and from 11am to finish for the big stages. I miss that here. Radio Tour de France always makes me feel like summer has truly arrived!

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posted Jul 4, 2008

just found out - the ITV red button daily coverage isn't available on freeview, but it is on satellite and cable

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posted Jul 4, 2008

Yep, sorry I was told there would be red button coverage on freeview too but was misinformed. Pinky and Perky probably are the best cycling commentary team, but only because they are slightly less dreadful than Duffers or Harmon

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