I chose to get rid of my television a few years ago. Most of the time life is great without the black box in the corner of my living room. But around the end of June each year I question my choice. How will I survive Le Tour without a telly? Well, this is how...

Ideally you need two computers. One for a live TV feed and one for a live text tickers or live audio, and an online forum.

For Stage 1 I managed to get live TV from www.tg4.tv/ for the first 100kms. The link was very good both in visual quality and consistency of coverage (some annoying adverts and only a few re-bufferings). tg4's commentary was in Irish so I watched with the sound off (no offence intended, I can't speak the language) and on my other laptop I had several tabs active:

1) Eurosport uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/cycli... I like the graphics of the stage profile and the peloton. The live text ticker is okay; sometimes giving quirky facts and figures. I managed to get the live audio to work after a few attempts; the strong Irish accent of Sean Kelly complimented the Irish TV! It's quite a broad-range commentary so stay away if you want nothing more than the cold hard facts.

2) BBC Sport news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/oth... The live text ticker links nicely to comments on the BBC 606 cycling forum ( www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A38024... I like the good clear website design which makes viewing and reading easy.

3) BBC Radio: Once Radio 5 Live started broadcasting, for the last few kms of the Stage, I stopped the Eurosport audio and tried the Beeb instead. However after a few minutes I returned to Eurosport. Sorry, but the BBC commentary lacked enthusiasm, in my opinion.

After the Stage I visited the offical TdF website www.letour.fr/indexus.html for the stage and jersey standings, the finish-line photo (these are works of at, no doubt about it), and highlight videos. I also like to look at The Guardian www.guardian.co.uk/sport/tou... to get a feel for the media's spin on the day.

p.s. I also got the Eurosport video & audio from this link www.justin.tv/giac2007 . Don't know about the legality of this though?

p.p.s. Am I missing any good links?

p.p.p.s. Poor Philippe Gilbert, pipped at the post on his birthday; but congratualtions go to Valverde for a great finish.

p.p.p.ps. Finally, it's good to be back on the forum (I've been busy!).