Races: Tour de France 2007 Television Coverage
July 6, 2007 — Joe EnglishGet those Tivos fired up, it’s time for the Tour de France!
Sure, I write almost exclusively about running and triathlon, but Tour de France time is still one of the greatest times of the year.
Being able to watch the excitement of one of the world’s great endurance events unfold over the course of three weeks is amazing. It can almost be lost on us that the riders are traveling more than a hundred miles each day, getting right back on their bikes to race again day after day for almost three weeks, and covering all of this distance at speeds that most us could barely force our bikes to go for a few miles at most. It’s simply awesome.
TV coverage is live each morning here in the US and then replayed later in the day. US coverage is provided by the Versus Network - formerly known as OLN (Outdoor Living Network).
The morning coverage usually lasts 3-4 hours, depending on the day and includes everything that happens once the broadcast starts (so if they start earlier in the day, they’ll usually recap and then join the ride in progress). The afternoon/evening broadcasts are typically edited down to about two hours, but there is also usually an “expanded” coverage show that replays most everything from the live broadcast in the morning.
If you’d like a calendar of the more interesting days of the Tour, click here for a related post.
This year’s Tour starts under a cloud of drug scandals once again, with many of the top riders and some coaches sitting this one out. There was an excellent article about the scene of this year’s Tour in the International Herald Tribune that you can access by clicking here. The German news daily Deutsche Welle also featured an article about the drug problems looming over the sport (click here).
For the entire TV schedule on Versus, click here.
Versus Network Tour de France coverage site: http://www.versus.com/tdf
Coach Joe
Running Wild with Coach Joe – a blog focused on marathon, triathlon and ultra-endurance racing, training and motivation. Bookmark us at http://coachjoeenglish.wordpress.com or use your favorite RSS feed reader to get the latest news and articles. Running Wild is also available on Yahoo! 360 and My Space.
Joe English
coachdeanhebert
teejford
July 9, 2007 at 3:13 pm
How come 2007 tour is not televised in Los Angeles, CA ?
July 9, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Sharon,
You’ll want to check your cable tv/satellite listings for the Versus Network. Sometimes in short hand it is “Vs”. If you don’t have cable or satellite, or if your provider doesn’t carry Versus, then there is no other US television coverage.
Check around local sports bars, bike shops and other cycling “hang-outs” as they often will televise the Tour as a social event. Here in Portland one of our French bakeries shows the Tour live every morning - as does one of our cycling themed brew-pubs.
Coach Joe
July 10, 2007 at 2:36 pm
[...] For the complete TV schedule, see my other post on the topic by clicking here. [...]