It's almost here! The 2024 Tour of Flanders and Tour of Flanders Women are coming up this weekend on Sunday, March 31, with the cream of the crop of the Classics peloton taking on the toughest cobbles and hills that Flanders has to offer at the second Monument of the season.
We've been waiting all spring for the peloton to tackle Belgian cycling's hallowed ground and the famed cobbled climbs of the Paterberg, Koppenberg, and Oude Kwaremont. Now we're edging ever closer to one of the biggest races on the calendar.
Some of the biggest names in the men's and women's pelotons will reconvene in Antwerp and Oudenaarde to kick off the festivities on Sunday morning, with reigning champions Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) heading the bill.
Other big names lining up at the start of the men's race include Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), Julian Alaphilippe, Kasper Asgreen, Yves Lampaert (Soudal-QuickStep), Wout van Aert, Tiesj Benoot, Dylan van Baarle (Visma-Lease A Bike), Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious), Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-Easypost), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Mads Pedersen, Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Oier Lazkano (Movistar), Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla), and Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility).
In the women's race, look out for other top contenders including Demi Vollering, Chantal Van den Broek-Blaak (SD Worx-Protime), Kasia Niewiadoma, Chloe Dygert (Canyon-Sram), Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck), Elisa Longo Borghini, Elisa Balsamo, Elizabeth Deignan (Lidl-Trek), Arlenis Sierra, Emma Norsgaard (Movistar), Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), Marianne Vos, Fem van Empel (Visma-Lease A Bike), Silvia Persico, and Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ).
Cyclingnews will be bringing you full reports, results, news, interviews, and analysis throughout the race. Read on to find out how to watch the racing action via live stream, no matter your location, with NordVPN.
How to watch the Tour of Flanders for free
If you live Belgium or are visiting on holiday, then you can watch the 2024 Tour of Flanders for free via Belgian networks Sporza and RTBF. In Australia, SBS are also airing the race for free.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
But 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 of Flanders in the USA & Canada
The 2024 Tour of Flanders will be aired by FloBikes in both the USA and in Canada.
A subscription to the streaming service will set you back US$149.99 / CAN$150 for the year or US$29.99 / CAN$29.99 on a monthly basis.
How to watch the Tour of Flanders in the UK
In the UK, live coverage of the 2024 Tour of Flanders will continue to be broadcast via Eurosport and Discovery+ – with the same commentators that featured on GCN+.
A 'standard' subscription to Discovery+, which includes Eurosport's cycling coverage, will set you back £6.99 per month or £59.99 per year. The package includes year-round cycling streams as well as other live sports, including snooker, tennis, motorsports, the Paris Olympic Games, and more.
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 of Flanders in Australia
In Australia, the 2024 Tour of Flanders will be broadcast live and in full by the free-to-air channel SBS. The race is also set to be available on SBS on Demand – both live and in catch-up mode – if the middle of the night viewing in Australia doesn't work for you.
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.
1. 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.
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, joining in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired full-time. Before joining the team, they had written for numerous major publications in the cycling world, including CyclingWeekly and Rouleur.
Dani has reported from the world's top races, including the Tour de France, Road World Championships, and the spring Classics. They have interviewed many of the sport's biggest stars, including Mathieu van der Poel, Demi Vollering, and Remco Evenepoel. Their favourite races are the Giro d'Italia, Strade Bianche and Paris-Roubaix.
