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.
Bernie S writes: “This used to be our World Cup race (Rochester Classic et al) which the germans pinched after the Tour success of Ullrich and it’s on Rai Sport Piu [free-to-air at 13e] Sunday 8 September 1430-1530 CET”
The third and final grand tour of the year approaches! As you’d expect, the main coverage is from Spanish national broadcaster TVEI on a wide range of satellites with show times apparently only published a few days ahead now. In previous years, TVEI times had been published a week or two ahead.
Eurosport is the next best, free-to-air n German at 19e, with Vuelta shows starting at 1600 CET most days.
Who else is covering this race free-to-air?
This year’s Tour of Germany is overlapping with the Tour of Ireland and the Vuelta a Espana, which I don’t remember it doing before, so the main place to watch it is ARD Das Erste on 19e and 13e.
ARD show times are listed on the official site but settle down to 1605-1725 CET for next Monday-Friday. Some stages are also shown on TW1/ORF Sport Plus at 19e. (Thanks to Bernie S for the links.)
It looks like all other international satellite broadcasts are pay-TV. Please leave a comment if you know better.
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.
The Tour of Portugal is being shown live on RTPi (13e and 19e, also other continents). Times (UTC+1) are:
I don’t think this race is carried on other channels (please leave a comment if you know otherwise) and RTPi’s broadcast quality has been a bit worse than most channels over the last few years (I suspect there’s an analogue part of the broadcast system), but this race is still worth watching to see if you can spot some stars of the future. The umbrella dancing while waiting for the podium presentations also needs to be seen to be believed!
Sadly, the official site is ShockWaveF’d so I can’t see who’s riding, but I expect the main CyclingFans Live Coverage page will keep me informed well enough.
(Thanks to Bernie S for the tip yet again.)
Bad BBC! Their olympic schedules are useless, so I’d missed the Men’s road race by the time I found the right page on their website.
The Women’s road race is 0700-1030 BST tomorrow (Sun 10 August), with the time trials on Wednesday 13 August 0430-1010 BST.
BMX fans (any reading this? I’ve yet to find any) can see the finals up to 0418 BST on Thursday 21 August, while mountain bikes run 0800-1030 BST on Friday 22 (Women) and Saturday 23 (Men).
Events are shown on Eurosport (19e), ARD/ZDF (19e), RTBF-Sat (19e), La 2 (5w), SLO-2 (13e), RAI Due and RAI Sport (13e) and maybe others, but most broadcasters don’t make it easy to find which events are on which channels when (see above flame of the BBC), so good luck!
Update: highlights of Men’s Road Race at 2300 CET tonight (Saturday) on Eurosport (19e).
The Clásica San Sebastián is on RAI Sport Più at 13e, advertised as 1545-1730 CET today (Sat 2 Aug), but experience suggests those times may vary.
I’m surprised that this race seems fairly hard to find. Thanks to Bernie S for the tip. I hope the summer storms here don’t disrupt my viewing.
Bernie S also mentioned that ETB Sat (19e) are covering Subida Urkiola on Sunday 3 Aug from 1550 to 1700 cet
And so it starts!
France 2 and 3 are the home of the Tour, really. They have most coverage at 5w. Current show times from EuroTV.
Belgium‘s French-language RTBFsat is also showing live coverage and their “A bicyclette” show is back. See teletext for today’s show times.
Eurosport has coverage at 19e with audio in German (digital and analogue) and English (analogue only). Live coverage of stages and several repeats of highlights – a good pick if you miss your daily dose of tour. Current show times from Klack. It looks like ARD and ZDF (19e and some 13e) are also showing it – I wonder if they’ll show the whole race this year? ARD Listings.
In the UK, we’ve more coverage than ever before, with itv4 advertising itself as the home of cycling at 28e. There’s live coverage on weekends and highlights around 7pm BST every day. Current show listings from TVGuide. Update: On weekdays, live coverage is on one of the ITVi Video Stream channels at 28e on 10832kHz Horizontal SID 10005 VPID 2367 APID 2366. This is on Astra 2D, so coverage is UK-focused.
Dutch language channel BVN (Best from Flanders and Netherlands) on 19e and 13e is showing NOS’s Sportzomer highlights and interview show on most days around 2230 CET. See VRT teletext for today’s show time. Thanks to Bernie S for the tip.
Italy‘s RAI Tre (13e) is showing stages live and highlights in Tg Sport Speciale around 2000 CET each evening. I’d expect more coverage and repeats on RAI Sport Piu on weekdays, but I only have listings for one day ahead.
I’ll probably post again in a few days once I’ve tried a few channels and noted any differences or eccentricities in their coverage. Let me know if you’re watching it free-to-air another way, or if something above does or doesn’t work for you, please.
As mentioned in a comment by connolly, the Belgian national championships are on RTBFsat at 19e today from 1515-1800 CET.
Bernie S emailed to let me know that the Italian national championships are on RAI at 13e. RAI Sport Piu has the championships 1430-1700 CET and then the Dolomite Marathon 1700-2230 CET. RAI Tre shows the championships 1600-1710 CET.
France 3 at 5w has the Championnats de France de cyclisme sur route from 1500 CET.
Connolly asked after the Netherlands (which I’ve never seen on free TV) and Bernie S also asked after the German national championships, but I can’t find them on free TV anywhere this year… have you found them? Or any other national championships? Please let us know in a comment.
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