How to watch Tour de France 2019
Tour de France 2019 takes place until 28 July this year. Here’s how to watch every minute of the 106th version of this iconic race
The Tour de France 2019 started on Saturday 6 July in Brussels, Belgium to mark 50 years since its hometown hero Eddy Merckx’s win. The 21-stage race will end at the iconic Champs-Élysées in Paris on Sunday 28 July.
Defending champion Geraint Thomas will be hoping to replicate his success, but doing that over the 3,460km course won’t be easy.
The Welshman’s biggest threat could come from his own team, Team Ineos. Fellow rider Egan Bernal is a promising 21-year-old who goes into the Tour de France with recent victories at Paris-Nice and Tour de Suisse.
Not surprisingly, he’s the clear favourite to win the white jersey, awarded to the race’s best young rider. The Colombian is also more comfortable in the high mountains than Thomas.
This year will also mark 100 years of the yellow jersey. Apart from the two Team Ineos riders, other favourites for the coveted yellow jersey include Jakob Fuglsang and Romain Bardet.
In comparison, the runaway favourite for the green jersey (leader in the point competition) this year is Slovak rider, Peter Sagan.
The biggest news leading up to this year’s Tour de France was undoubtedly the injury of decorated British cyclist Chris Froome, who will be out for at least six months following a horrific crash that left him with several broken bones. Froome, who placed second last year, was aiming to become the first British rider to win five Tour de France titles.
Team Sunweb’s Tom Dumoulin, who came third last year, is another high prospect rider who has withdrawn from this year’s race citing a lingering knee problem.
Tour de France 2019 route
The Tour de France is broken into 21 stages this year, with the 194.5km stage one starting in Brussels, Belgium.
Stage two will comprise of the team time trials and stage three is the individual time trial before the peloton crosses into France.
There are two rest days after stages ten and 15. Stages six, 12, 14, 15, 18, 19 and 20 will be in the challenging French mountains.
The Tour de France 2019 winner will be crowded on the famous promenade of the Champs-Élysées in Paris at the end of stage 21 on Sunday 28 July.
How to watch Tour de France 2019 in the UK: ITV
Viewers living in Britain can count themselves fortunate because they have a few ways that they can watch the Tour de France 2019 for free. The entire race will be broadcast on ITV4 on TV.
You can stream the Tour de France live on ITV Hub and watch highlights of every stage on the night following the race from 7pm.
You will of course need UK login details, but it’s easy to sign up provided you have a UK postcode.
How to watch Tour de France 2019 in the UK, Europe and Australia: Eurosport
The other way you can live stream the Tour de France is Eurosport. This is a free channel that comes with Sky TV packages, which means you can also use it to stream the race on Sky TV and Sky Go.
Apart from live Tour de France coverage from 11am onward, Eurosport will also show race highlights at 11.30pm every night.
You can also subscribe to monthly or annual Eurosport packages to live-stream the Tour de France on any of your devices using the Eurosport website or mobile apps.
Eurosport has three passes:
- An annual monthly pass of £4.99 for 12 months
- An annual pass for £39.99
- A monthly pass of £6.99
How to watch Tour de France 2019 on Amazon Prime
If you have Amazon Prime, you can get a seven-day free trial to Eurosport Player.
After the trial week elapses, Eurosport Player will cost you £6.99 per month on top of your regular Amazon Prime subscription.
How to watch Tour de France 2019 in the US: NBC Sports
US viewers will also be able to watch live coverage of the Tour de France across all three weeks on NBC Sports Network, which you can get via most cable and satellite TV packages.
Alternatively, you can subscribe to the NBC Sports Gold app and web page, where you’ll get live coverage of Tour de France for $54.99 a year.
How to watch Tour de France 2019 in France
French viewers can follow the Tour de France on their premier sporting channel, France tv sport, the national sporting broadcaster.
How to watch Tour de France 2019 in Wales
Welsh viewers will be able to keep track of Geraint Thomas’ every move via the S4C channel.
Live coverage will start at 2pm every day.
How to watch Tour de France 2019 wherever you are: use a VPN
If you’re going to be travelling outside your country in July, your best bet to stream live coverage of the Tour de France using the services we mentioned above is to use a VPN.
VPNs (virtual private networks) essentially fool your computer or other devices into thinking it’s in another country, meaning you can access content that would otherwise be foiled by a geoblock.
Once you have one of these, you can download your chosen VPN, select the UK server, head over to the relevant website and start watching. To help you choose your preferred VPN, here are our top two favourites: ExpressVPN and NordVPN.
READ NEXT: Best VPN services 2019
Both VPN services have great speeds, safe jurisdictions, strong encryption standards, 30-day money-back guarantee, a minimum of five simultaneous connections and 24/7 customer support.
ExpressVPN: Among all the VPN services we’re tried, ExpressVPN is the fastest, especially for long-distance connections. It recently increased its maximum device limit from three to five after users requested it.
NordVPN: Our second-favourite VPN is NordVPN. Apart from good speeds and easy-to-use apps, the entire NordVPN service has been independently audited to prove that it doesn’t store any user logs.