Follow The Tour De France Online

From Wired How-To Wiki

The 2008 edition of the Tour De France -- the premiere event on the pro cycling calendar and the oldest of the three grand tours -- kicks off Saturday, July 5. If you're lucky enough to live in France, you can follow the three week race from town to town in person. The rest of Europe can enjoy live coverage on the Eurosport network, and North Americans can watch daily reports on the cable network Versus.

But if you live in the U.S. or Canada and you don't have cable, or if your provider doesn't carry any of the networks following the Tour, then your options are quite limited. Luckily, your best friend the internet has more than a few ways you can keep up with all the sprints, climbs, crashes and breakaways in the Grande Boucle without leaving your desk or turning on the TV.

Here are our tips for getting your Tour fix online.

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Contents 1 Video 2 Audio 3 Websites 4 Interactive maps 5 Primers For newbies 6 Twitter Updates 7 Contests and Wagering 8 And a little Kraftwerk

Video

The Tour's organizers make a pretty penny off the television broadcast rights for the race in all the different countries where it's on the tube. Consequently, it's tough to find reliable live video streams on the web. But there are options -- most of them Flash video streams from Eurosport affiliates in countries like France, Germany, U.K. and Italy.

The most comprehensive list of links is at the Cyclingfans website. The folks there post several video streaming options, and the list is updated daily.

Another site offering fresh, daily updates on video feeds is Steephill.tv.

We'd also recommend keeping the Europsport France video page and the France2.tv page bookmarked. The feeds are popular, so they tend to work only intermittently, but the French networks are usually more reliable than those from Italy or Germany.

In most of these cases, you'll get to see a live stream, but the audio portion will be in a foreign language. It's actually kind of fitting for the Euro-centric sport -- especially in French -- but you can always turn the audio off and listen to an English audio stream instead.

Tip 1: Cable network Versus will carry the beginnings of the first two stages -- and possibly more -- as free web streams prior to going live on television. The network will also show the live pre-television feeds for key mountain stages. Details are at Versus.com.

Tip 2: Justin.tv website offer at least 3 or 4 live feeds from Eurosport and Spanish television, It's not the best video quality but it is watchable.

Tip 3: Demonoid.com You be the judge of your local laws and ethics, however Demonoid has quick postings of commercial free Tour stages. Just do a search for Tour De France 2008.

Audio

Again, your best bet for live audio is Eurosport -- there's a Flash audio player at eurosport.yahoo.com.

Websites

The official Tour site is at letour.fr, but the best Tour site for cycling fans in the North America is the dedicated TdF website at VeloNews. It's got live updates, photo galleries, video highlights and on-camera interviews with big-name riders, interactive maps of each stage and in-depth analysis of the news. VeloNews also has a site optimized for the iPhone at mobile.velonews.com.

Other English-speaking websites like Cyclingnews.com, Pez Cycling News and Bicycle.net have dedicated and comprehensive Tour coverage with live reports, news, videos and rider interviews. There's also the the excellent new ProTourNews which generally has a more behind the scenes approach to proceedings. Eurosport U.K. also has video highlights and rider interviews, but the real jewel is race analysis from ex-riders now in retirement like Sean Kelly.

Interactive maps

Google Maps has rolled out Street Views in Europe along the route of the 2008 Tour De France. Now you can follow the race by zooming down to a ground-level view of the actual roads the riders will be using during the race. Start browsing at the special Tour de France 2008 site at Google Maps (in French).

MapMyRide.com also has interactive maps of the Tour de France that anyone can paste right into their website. Each stage is marked out and people can view the course on street maps, satellite maps, or even download right into Google Earth and "fly the course" in 3D.

Some Examples

• Stage 1: Brest - Plumelec
• Stage 2: Auray - Saint Brieuc
• Stage 3: Saint Malo - Nantes
• Stage 4: Cholet
• Stage 5: Cholet - Châteauroux
• Stage 6: Aigurande - Super-Besse Sancy

Primers For newbies

Want to know what the different jerseys mean? Wondering what the hell a peloton is? Check out the primers from VeloNews, Cyclingnews and Eurosport.

Twitter Updates

Twitter fever isn't exactly taking over the Tour this year, but a few feeds are showing up. American underdogs Team Garmin-Chipotle will be Twittering live updates from the team car as the race unfolds. Also, TourFrance is an automated Twitter feed featuring every TdF-related story from AP and Reuters.

Contests and Wagering

There's no shortage of Fantasy Tour league options online. Cycling-games, Eurosport and CBS Sports are just a handful of the sites hosting contests. Some, like Cycling-games, are featuring daily prize giveaways for cyclists -- shades, shoes, helmets and such.

If you're the wagering type, you can bet on stage winners or overall winners in each category (GC, KOM, Points and young rider) on most major sports betting sites. Stick to the reputable ones like Sportbet and Pinnaclesports.com.

And a little Kraftwerk

Of course, we can't overlook the German band Kraftwerk's homage to the greatest spectacle of pro cycling. Sing along!

This page was last modified 21:25, 7 July 2008 by young9898. Based on work by zanechaos, velociraptor, snackfight, frankgomezg and mapmyfitness.