The Tour du Var – or the Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var, to give it its full title – kicks off on Friday, February 19, the third French stage race of the 2021 season. And, as with the Étoile de Bessèges and Tour de la Provence, the race has a more impressive start list than usual thanks to the early-season race cancellations elsewhere.
Giro d'Italia winner Tao Geoghegan Hart returns to racing for the first time since his win in Italy last year, leading a powerful Ineos Grenadiers squad in France. He'll face up to 2020 winner Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech), and more at the three-day race.
Cyclingnews will be bringing you full reports, results, news, interviews, and analysis throughout the race. Read on to find out how to watch the Tour du Var via live stream, no matter your location, with ExpressVPN.
That star trio is far from a complete list of the big names lining up in south-east France, though. For a start, Geoghegan Hart will be joined by Geraint Thomas, Rohan Dennis, Pavel Sivakov and neo-pro Tom Pidcock, in what is easily the strongest team at the race.
Pinot will race alongside David Gaudu, while Vlasov has Jakob Fuglsang, Gorka Izagirre and Omar Fraile for company. Ben O'Connor leads AG2R Citroën, while ex-AG2R man Pierre Latour heads up Total Direct Énergie.
Fabio Aru is Qhubeka Assos' leader in Var, while compatriot Giulio Ciccone heads up Trek-Segafredo alongside Bauke Mollema. Elsewhere, Michael Woods begins his Israel Start-Up Nation career with Dan Martin for company, Rui Costa leads UAE Team Emirates, and Jesùs Herrada is Cofidis' choice to contend.
The race kicks off on Friday with a 188-kilometre stage from Biot to Gourdon which features three ascents of a second-category climb to the finish town. Stage 2 is a 177.4-kilometre hilly stage around Fayence, while Sunday's final day will see the peloton tackle 134.7 kilometres and three first-category climbs en route to a downhill finish in Blausasc.
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Read on for all the information on how to watch the 2021 Tour du Var.
Tour du Var live stream
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The Tour du Var will air in France live on France 3 in the south-eastern Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. In Belgium, it will be aired by Sporza.
In the UK and around Europe, the race will be aired live on the Eurosport Player, with a subscription costing £6.99 for a month, £4.99 for a year-long monthly pass, or £39.99 for a 12-month pass. GCN+ will also show the race – where throughout February fans can get a year’s subscription for half its usual cost, at just £19.99 / €19.99.
If you live outside a broadcast zone or are on holiday outside your country and find that the live streams to be geo-restricted, you can get around this by getting access to them by simulating being back in your home country via a 'virtual private network', or VPN, for your laptop, tablet or mobile.
Our sister site TechRadar tested hundreds of VPNs and recommends the number-one VPN currently available as Express VPN. With ExpressVPN, you can watch on many devices at once including Smart TVs, Fire TV Stick, PC, Mac, iPhone, Android phone, iPads, tablets, etc.
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