The Tour de France kicked off on Sunday, June 29 in Florence, Italy with a ridiculously challenging start to the 2024 edition.
Romain Bardet and DSM-Firmenich-PostNL teammate Frank van den Broek stole the show from the sprinters with the Frenchman donning the maillot jaune for the first time in his career after winning the stage.
He'll be resplendent on stage 2 in yellow with Van den Broek in the green jersey while Uno-X's Jonas Abrahamsen won the polka dot climber's jersey on the opening stage.
Stage 2 starts just up the Adriatic coast in Cesena and heads northwest to Bologna. While it's less mountainous, there are six classified climbs and a time bonus sprint on the Côte de San Luca to spice up the finale.
The race transfers further west on Monday to Piacenza for a much flatter 230.8km stage 3 with an expected sprint finish in Turin, the race reaching French soil on stage 4 with the first high mountain stage and the highest point of the Tour de France on the Col du Galibier.
Everyone expects Giro d'Italia winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) to pour pressure on Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike), who has questionable form after recovering from a serious crash in April, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), who was ill after the Critérium du Dauphiné, and his biggest rival, Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
The 2024 Tour de France will be broadcast in Australia on SBS on Demand, in the UK by ITV4, and in Wales by S4C.
If you live or are on holiday in any of these countries then enjoy the month of racing with no subscription fees to pay. However, if you're away from home on holiday during the racing then it's possible to keep up with the racing without resorting to shelling out for a local streaming subscription.
A VPN could solve your problem, and we have all the information on how to watch the action using a VPN below.
How to watch the Tour de France in the USA & Canada
The Tour de France will air on NBC Sports the USA and on its streaming service, Peacock TV.
FloBikes is the Tour de France host for Canada. An annual subscription will set you back $29.99/month or $150/year.
Peacock TV offers a seven-day free trial for those who want to try before you buy. A full subscription to the service starts from $4.99 per month.
NBC is available via cable plans and, if you're a cord-cutter, you can watch the network via Hulu ($7.99 per month with a 30-day free trial), DirecTV (from $64.99 per month with a five-day free trial), and FuboTV (from $74.99 per month with a seven-day free trial).
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Date
Stage
Start/Finish times (EDT)
29-Jun
Stage 1
6:00 am - 11:34 am
30-Jun
Stage 2
6:15 - 11:06
1-Jul
Stage 3
5:15 - 10:57
2-Jul
Stage 4
7:05 - 11:05
3-Jul
Stage 5
6:20 - 11:16
4-Jul
Stage 6
7:35 - 11:19
5-Jul
Stage 7
7:05 - 11:29
6-Jul
Stage 8
7:05 - 11:19
7-Jul
Stage 9
7:15 - 11:49
8-Jul
Rest day 1
Row 9 - Cell 2
9-Jul
Stage 10
7:05 - 11:24
10-Jul
Stage 11
5:20 - 10:54
11-Jul
Stage 12
6:35 - 11:16
12-Jul
Stage 13
7:30 - 11:21
13-Jul
Stage 14
7:05 - 11:17
14-Jul
Stage 15
5:55 - 11:22
15-Jul
Rest day 2
Row 16 - Cell 2
16-Jul
Stage 16
7:05 - 11:31
17-Jul
Stage 17
6:35 - 10:58
18-Jul
Stage 18
7:00 - 11:30
19-Jul
Stage 19
6:20 - 10:28
20-Jul
Stage 20
7:35 - 11:18
21-Jul
Stage 21
8:40 - 1:30pm
How to watch the Tour de France in the UK
UK viewers can find the Tour de France on ITV4, Welsh-language channel S4C as well as on Eurosport and Discovery+.
A 'standard' subscription to Discovery+, which includes Eurosport's cycling coverage, will set you back £6.99 per month or £59.99 per year. A premium subscription, which includes all that plus TNT Sports (Premier League, Champions League and Europa League football plus rugby, wrestling, UFC, and MotoGP), costs an additional £29.99 per month.
How to watch the Tour de France around the world
For a local feel and full French-language coverage of the race, head to France TV Around Europe, broadcasters include ARD in Germany, Sporza and RTBF in Belgium, Rai in Italy, and RTVE in Spain.
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Date
Stage
Start-finish
Distance
Start/Finish times (CET)
29-Jun
Stage 1
Florence - Rimini
206km
12:00 - 17:34
30-Jun
Stage 2
Cesenatico - Bologna
198.7km
12:15 - 17:06
1-Jul
Stage 3
Piacenza - Turin
230.5km
11:15 - 16:57
2-Jul
Stage 4
Pinerolo - Valloire
139.6km
13:05 - 17:05
3-Jul
Stage 5
Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne - Saint-Vulbas Plaine de l'Ain
177.4km
13:20 - 17:16
4-Jul
Stage 6
Mâcon - Dijon
163.5km
13:35 - 17:19
5-Jul
Stage 7
Nuits-Saint-Georges - Gevrey-Chambertin
25.3km (ITT)
13:05 - 17:29
6-Jul
Stage 8
Semur-en-Auxois - Colombey-les-Deux-Églises
183.4km
13:05 - 17:19
7-Jul
Stage 9
Troyes - Troyes
199km
13:15 - 17:49
8-Jul
Rest day 1
Orléans
Row 9 - Cell 3
Row 9 - Cell 4
9-Jul
Stage 10
Orléans - Saint-Amand-Montrond
187.3km
13:05 - 17:24
10-Jul
Stage 11
Évaux-les-Bains - Le Lioran
211km
11:20 - 16:54
11-Jul
Stage 12
Aurillac - Villeneuve-sur-Lot
203.6km
12:35 - 17:16
12-Jul
Stage 13
Agen - Pau
165.3km
13:30 - 17:21
13-Jul
Stage 14
Pau - Saint-Lary-Soulan Pla d'Adet
151.9km
13:05 - 17:17
14-Jul
Stage 15
Loudenvielle - Plateau de Beille
197.7km
11:55 - 17:22
15-Jul
Rest day 2
Gruissan
Row 16 - Cell 3
Row 16 - Cell 4
16-Jul
Stage 16
Gruissan - Nîmes
188.6km
13:05 - 17:31
17-Jul
Stage 17
Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux - Superdévoluy
177.8km
12:35 - 16:58
18-Jul
Stage 18
Gap - Barcelonnette
179.6km
13:00 - 17:30
19-Jul
Stage 19
Embrun - Isola 2000
144.6km
12:20 - 16:28
20-Jul
Stage 20
Nice - Col de la Couillole
132.8km
13:35 - 17:18
21-Jul
Stage 21
Monaco - Nice
33.7km (ITT)
14:40 - 19:30
Watch live cycling on any streams
If you are outside of your home region and need to access your live streaming services to watch the action, you may find your access to be geo-restricted.
In this case, a VPN service will come in handy, allowing your computer to pretend it's home and let you log into your streaming accounts to catch all of the racing action.
Our colleagues at TechRadarthoroughly tested several VPN services and came up with a few great recommendations below.
1. NordVPN - get the world's favorite VPN We've put all the major VPNs through their paces and we rate NordVPN as the best for streaming Netflix as our top pick, thanks to its speed, ease of use and strong security features. It's also compatible with just about any streaming device out there, including Amazon Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Xbox and PlayStation, as well as Android and Apple mobiles.
There are a couple other very good options that are safe, reliable and offer good bandwidth for streaming sports. Check out two other top options below - ExpressVPN and the best budget option, Surfshark.
2. Try ExpressVPN risk-free for 30 days ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money back guarantee with its VPN service. You can use it to watch on your mobile, tablet, laptop, TV, games console and more. There's 24/7 customer support and three months free when you sign-up.
Currently topping our charts as the fastest VPN around, Surfshark keeps giving us reasons to recommend it. It's a high-value, low-cost option that's easy to use, full of features, and excellent at unblocking restricted content.
With servers in over 100 countries, you can stream your favorite shows from almost anywhere. Best of all, Surfshark costs as little as $2.30 per month, and it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee to try it out.
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Laura Weislo has been with Cyclingnews since 2006 after making a switch from a career in science. As Managing Editor, she coordinates coverage for North American events and global news. As former elite-level road racer who dabbled in cyclo-cross and track, Laura has a passion for all three disciplines. When not working she likes to go camping and explore lesser traveled roads, paths and gravel tracks. Laura specialises in covering doping, anti-doping, UCI governance and performing data analysis.
