Cycling Fans on Satellite

And so it begins again!

itv4 (28e) has live coverage every day for the first time. Start times are between 1500 and 1700 BST, with highlights daily at 1900-2000 BST (except today when it’s at 2000), repeated the following day at 1300.

France Television is the home broadcaster and you can watch live tour coverage on France 2 (5w) most days starting at or before 1420 CET. There’s often a short programme earlier at 1250 or 1300 CET for the village départ on France 3 (5w). There’s a coverage guide in French on the France Television site. Generally, the pictures are what you’ll see used as a base by all the other broadcasters.

Italian channel RAI Due (13e) has the live stages again this year, with highlights later on RAI Sport píu (13e). Earlier in the day, RAI Sport píu is showing the Giro d’Italia femmini if you’d like to watch that.

Either the Spanish-language channels suck, my TV guides suck or both. I can’t find any free-to-air coverage from Spain at all.

In German, Eurosport (19e) has live coverage daily about the same time. Once again, expect it to have added features like Planet Armstrong: Season 2, interviews, guest summarisers and slightly irritating competitions scrolling across the bottom of the screen.

ARD and ZDF (13e and 19e) have come back to their senses after a couple of bad years. This year they’re showing live coverage, but still starting about an hour later in the stage than some broadcasters (1530 CET or so). Maybe next year will see full coverage.

Have you spotted any more free-to-air coverage? Any particularly good (or bad) presentations of the Tour? What do you love or hate about the shows? Leave a comment and praise Phil or lament Duffy Duck if you like…

The Tour Series, the Tour of Britain’s city centre circuit racing sister, started last night at Canary Wharf and it’s on satellite today, free-to-air at 28e right now on itv4 or in an hour on itv4+1.

For the next few weeks, it should be every Wednesday and Friday on itv4 at 19:00 BST (UTC+0100). Maybe see you at a race later on.

Grand Tour Time! The first one of 2010 kicks off. As you’d expect, the Tour of Italy starts anywhere except Italy: this year it’s Amsterdam.

Coverage is where you’d expect: Rai Tre daily from 1515 CET, with preview before that, aftershow after it and highlights later on Rai Sport Pìu, both free-to-air at 13e. See Rai Teletext’s sport page for exact details.

It’s also on Eurosport at 19e if you prefer it in German or that’s where your dish is pointing.

Sadly, once again, it seems that none of the free-to-air French or English channels are showing the Giro. Come on itv4 - home of cycling, but only one grand tour?

The Tour of Britain started today!

Coverage is free-to-air on itv4 (28e) and it’s at 7pm BST most nights, except for 7.30pm on Sunday, 8pm Wednesday and 10.30pm(???) Thursday. TV times are shown on the itv Cycling web page.

It’s Britain’s top race and comes to Somerset for two key days this year just before the race-finishing 92km London circuit stage next Saturday.

Is it on TV anywhere else? I didn’t find it yet. I guess the Vuelta is more attractive for most broadcasters who are going to show cycle racing.

Just a small note to anyone monitoring this feed to go look at the Tour of Ireland details over on our parent site cyclingfans.com. As well as itv4 (28e #ukfreetv) at 1900 BST, it’s also on Eurosport Germany (19e) about 0000 CET.

And so it begins!

itv4 (28e) has live coverage Saturday 1630-1900 BST and Sunday 1430-1630 BST, with highlights daily at 1900-2000 BST (except Saturday when it’s at 2000), repeated the following day at 1300.

Unfortunately, it seems that reruns of 60s serials are more important to itv4 than the Tour de France (home of cycling? more like a doss house it’s only allowed in at night), so we need to look at foreign channels for live coverage…

France Television is the home broadcaster and you can watch live tour coverage on France 2 (5w) most days from about 1420 CET. There’s often a short programme earlier at 1250 or 1300 CET for the village départ on France 3 (5w). I suspect the highlights are in either the France 2 Journal at 2000 CET or Tout le Sport around 2300 CET on France 3. Generally, the pictures are what you’ll see used as a base by all the other broadcasters.

Belgium’s RTBFsat (13e) is also showing tour coverage in French. In previous years, it’s been fairly similar to the French coverage, but with different commentators. If I remember correctly, a little before the stage, their show A bicyclette offers a bit of a different look around the start towns.

Italian channel RAI Due (13e) seems to have the live stages this year, with highlights later on RAI Sport píu (13e). Earlier in the day, RAI Sport píu is showing the Giro d’Italia femmini if you’d like to watch that.

Either the Spanish-language channels suck, my TV guides suck or both. I can’t find any free-to-air coverage from Spain at all.

In German, Eurosport (19e) has live coverage daily. Usually, they add more on-screen captions, picture-in-picture interviews and also magazine programmes like Planet Armstrong. Good for information, but some may find the scrolling competitions a bit distracting.

ARD and ZDF (13e and 19e) continue their love-hate relationship with le Tour. This year they’re showing live coverage, but I think starting later in the stage than other broadcasters (1630 CET or so). Hopefully this year they won’t bottle out if some drug cheats are caught during the race.

Unusually, I’ve also found RTL Tele Letzeburg (19e) showing live coverage. I don’t remember finding that before. Maybe they’re hoping to capitalise on the reduced coverage from across the border in Germany this year?

Have you spotted any more free-to-air coverage? Any particularly good (or bad) presentations of the Tour? What do you love or hate about the shows? Leave a comment and praise Phil or condemn Carsten if you like…

itv4 at 28e has Paris-Nice highlights today at 1210 BST. On satellite, there’s an itv4+1 which will show it at 1310 BST.

It seems a bit strange to show the highlights so long after the event, but maybe this suggests the start of a sequence of highlights on Sunday lunchtimes. Nothing else showing on the schedules for the next two weeks yet, though.

itv, what are you playing at?

The 298km spring Classicissima takes place on Saturday 21st Mar 2009.

Coverage on free-to-air satellite includes Eurosport.de (at 19e), 1550-1715 CET and RAI Tre (13e), 1450-1550 CET (RAI listings - thanks to Dave Fisher). I think that last year it also appeared on itv4 on a Monday evening, but I can’t see it there yet!

If you see it on another channel, leave a comment, please.

The Tour of Britain is from Sunday 7 September - 14 September. I should be at Tuesday’s stage finish in Burnham-on-Sea and I’ll try to post some pictures from there. If you’re going to be at other stages, let me or cyclingfans.com know.

This year, itv4 takes up the baton with much-improved coverage every night at 8pm - see times from TVGuide.

The Tour of Ireland is attracting a growing audience and this year’s entrants include Garmin-Chipotle’s Irish champion Dan Martin who hinted at good form in the just-finished Volta a Portugal. Other entrants include Team Columbia with the Manx Express Mark Cavendish returning to the road hoping to recapture his amazing Tour de France form after a disappointing Beijing Olympics.

Highlights are shown every day on itv4 (at 28 east, on the UK-targetted beam) at 7pm BST from Wednesday 27th to Sunday 31st August, except 7.30pm Friday and 7.10pm Saturday. Non-satellite Irish viewers can see what looks like the same programme on RTE Two about 3am. (itv news release) I’ve not found any other non-subscription broadcasts yet.