Whilst we’re on sport, a word about this year’s Tour de France. We were watching the football on one screen whilst watching a compelling final stage of the Tour on another. I loved the innovation of including the climb up to Montmartre in the final stage, and the breakaway involving Pogacar and the indomitable Wout van Aert was just fantastic. As for the Tour itself, the yellow jersey contest was a non-event but there was plenty else to enjoy, especially the efforts of 22 year old Scot Oscar Onley, coming fourth in his first ever tour, and Irishman Ben Healy’s breakaways, stage win, and wearing yellow for a couple of days.
All of it tinged with sadness that this was the last terrestrial Channel4/ITV team broadcast with TNT having the rights in future. It was this team, with Gary Imlach, Phil Ligget and the late Paul Sherwin who introduced me and many others to the Tour of France in the 80s. Ned Boulting and David Millar have been superb since taking over from Phil and Paul, and it must have been an emotional broadcast for them all. Chapeau to them – vive le Tour!
Love watching the tour and will certainly miss ITV coverage though I did sign up for a months worth of TNT with Orla Chennaoui Who is very good . Maybe some of the ITV ex presenters will move over to TNT. As much as I admire Pogacar who is an unbelievable cyclist I wish the race for yellow was closer.
I used to love Le Tour. In days long gone I would study the tour route and identify key stages. I would then book leave so I could watch them. But no more.
Defenders say all the top riders have never tested positive. It is also frequently noted that the anti-doping agencies are forever playing catch-up up. I think they are trailing far, far behind.
At Chateau Simmo we have watched The Tour – either live or the highlights – each year ever since it started in the UK in 2014. Indeed, it has been the only sport I have ever bothered watching for many, many years, probably since my dad and I watched Match of the Day in the 1970s. I am, of course, delighted to hear about the Lionesses’ success, I love it when underdog teams or individuals win at other sports, I am proud as heck at the continuing large haul of medals Team GB come back with from each summer Olympics nowadays…. but as for actually watching any of them, nah! I guess what made the cycling different was the variety of the individual stages, the scenery, the sheer effort put in by the riders, the spills, the thrills and, most of all, the quality and good humour of the ITV commentators. I hate accordions with a blind passion (up there with clowns and morris dancing in my book) but even the ITV theme music was a delight. We will miss it hugely. As for next year, I will worry about how we watch it then. I don’t even mind subscribing to something as long as I can cancel it again after a month. Meanwhile, a big thanks goes to all involved in the ITV production as well as those who provide the excellent camera coverage. I can’t even ride a motorcycle and am always staggered how the camera crews manage to stay upright on twisty, fast, wet roads with one of them perched up high riding pillion.
It started on UK TV in 1985 or 86 on C4.
… and I could kick myself for not really being aware of the race before 2014. My loss I think given all that coverage beforehand!
Not sure of the details but apparently David Millar is heading up a free-to-view YouTube channel to cover next year’s TDF!
I used to be a big fan before I left the UK in 1993, but not really watched since then (although I do read the reports in the news).
Back in the early 90s there was a bunch of us at work that would cycle to work, go on evening rides, do the annual Manchester to Blackpool ride etc etc and so the Tour was much watched and discussed. Back then it was Miguel Indurain that won every year (I think he won five times in a row ?)
We live in France so natch we are huge fans of The Tour. Try explaining to non-believers that you stand by the road in the baking sun for hours and hours. Then The Caravan passes and you wrestle small children to the ground in order to secure a packet of sweets, or yes!, a King of the Mountains floppy hat. Then in the blink of an eye the main race passes by and off you go home. You can stick your Women’s Euros, this is where it’s at!
Oh for a plastic poncho covered in spots that lasts about as long as the fabled Ratners’ earrings. But yes, this is exactly what living in France and supporting The Tour is all about.
I went to see it when the tour started in Yorkshire, didn’t manage to catch anything from the caravan, but the peloton passes by and then it’s time to head back.
I watched it because a work colleague was a keen cyclist when they’re cycling up the hills as seen on television it looks like a gentle climb, until you see a cross section of the hills/mountains they’re climbing.
I saw it in Yorkshire too.
Fortunately it passed the bottom of my sister-in-law’s road, so it was a short step and out and a short step back.
We couldn’t get to Harrogate though. The train from York had a capacity far, far, smaller than the hundreds of people who wanted to travel there.
Clearly the thought of laying on a special train was simply unimaginable.
I saw it on the climb out of Mytholmroyd, driving to it they’d stopped traffic going on the Halifax to Hebden Bridge road out of Sowerby Bridge.
I said I was visiting friends at Luddenden Foot so I managed to leave the car there and had to walk the rest of the way.
At least I was lucky someone fell off a wall while waiting and the ambulance had to get them out. It was at least a 20 foot fall.
Belleville Rendezvous.
I watched the C4 Tour coverage avidly through the late 80s and 90s. It’s the only sport I’ve enjoyed being a spectator. It got to the point in the new millennium where it was the only thing I watched on telly, and I really couldn’t justify the cost of the licence and the hardware for half an hour each night for three weeks. So 2001 was the last year I watched the tour, but I do love seeing it at a friend’s, or on a big screen in the Place de la Republique in a provincial town. Managed to witness the tour live in Switzerland, the French Alps and, of course, Yorkshire.
Great idea ruined by cheats as with many sports.
Anyone see the clips of Trump’s caddies surreptitiously dropping balls for hin?