Never watched the Tour de France? Tuned in and wondered what was going on? Here are a few tips for first time viewers for Week 1, and you might end up like me, jumping up and down in my living room screaming GO, GO, GO!
The race is televised on Versus, often a channel that requires a step above the normal digital cable package. Online access to live coverage may be purchased at http://tourdefrance.nbcsports.com/ for $29.95, and there are also iPhone and iPad apps available. The TV coverage is plenty for most of us.
Each stage is televised several times a day and is always abbreviated. The riders are on course often five or six hours a day, and we get the highlights. The first telecast each morning is the longest, usually 5am to 8:30am Pacific time. It includes some charming banter among the group of commentators who cover the race, and they bet on who will win the day. If you are recording this first time slot, you may wish to record an extra thirty minutes at the end, in case the stage runs longer than expected. You certainly don’t want to miss the big finish! Shorter telecasts usually air 9am to 11am, 12:30pm to 2:30pm, 5pm to 6:30pm, 6:30pm to 8pm, 9pm to 10:30pm, and 10:30pm to 12am. They are edited to ensure a complete report from start to finish.
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| Phil Liggett (with Paul Sherwin at right) |
A good start to viewing is the summary at the top of the each program. It includes what happened yesterday and what to look out for today. If you ever miss a finish, just watch the start of the next day for a solid recap.
To hit the juiciest parts of the race, your viewing strategies may vary by the type of stage. In the mountains, anything can happen anytime, but in the sprints, drama is guaranteed in the final kilometers. You never know when a crash may change everything, or when a cow might cross the road, but if you are just dipping your toe into the water of cycling, you may wish to focus your viewing time.
Stage 1 on Saturday, July 2nd, is too steep for the true sprinters, so a wide range of cyclists are capable of victory. Keep your eye on time trial god Fabian Cancellara of Leopard-Trek and former green jersey champ Thor Hushovd of Garmin-Cervelo. Despite some incline, the excitement should be centered in the final 5 to 10 kilometers of the race.
Stage 2 on Sunday is a different story. It is the team time trial, and American teams HTC-Highroad and Garmin-Cervelo will be duking it out. Also, the teams of general classification contenders such as Alberto Contador of Saxo Bank and Andy Schleck of Leopard-Trek cannot afford to phone it in. For this stage, watch at least the final hour of coverage to see a range of teams in this unique discipline.
Stage 3 on Monday, July 4th, is the first truly flat stage, the perfect set-up for a thrilling sprint finish. While the sprinters teams start pushing hard in the last 50 kilometers, it is the last 5K that keep you at the edge of your seat. It is like watching a high-speed chess match, as the teammates try to launch their sprinter off the front at the last possible moment. Sprints are the California roll of cycling. Give those last five kilometers a watch. They are so easy and fun, you will be hooked for more! In sprint stages, the cyclists ride about 1K a minute, so don’t miss the last half hour of coverage to see the race play out, the slow motion replay, and the day’s winner on top of the podium.
Now that you have whet your appetite with a good sprint, it’s time for some hearty inclines at Stage 4. With some patches of the course at 15% grade, it will be the first time that the general classification riders will separate from the rest of the peloton. This is where someone will lose the whole enchilada, and the rest will live to fight another day. The last 10 kilometers will feature steep ascents and fast and furious descents, so the last hour of TV coverage will be worth watching.
Stage 5 on July 6th will be another flat stage, perfect for the sprinters. The hot competition will be between Mark Cavendish of HTC-Highroad, winner of a remarkable 15 Tour de France stages in three years; Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Cervelo, an accomplished sprinter yet to win a Tour stage; and Alessandro Petacchi of Lampre-ISD, a veteran enjoying a career renaissance in the last two years. Again, on sprint stages, the last five kilometers cannot be missed.
The next stage is the longest one of the 2011 Tour de France. A few climbs on Stage 6 make it unappealing for the sprinters, so this is another day ripe for surprise. The last hour or so of the day cannot be predicted.
Finishing the first week, Stage 7 finishes at Chateauroux, where Cavendish captured his first Tour win in 2008. This is a sprint finish, and Cav—the Manx Missile—will be hungry to repeat. Each time he crosses the line first, watch for his unique winning gestures. The guy is a character.
While these are some reasonable predictions, anything can happen at the Tour de France. No one could have anticipated that Andy Schleck’s brother Frank would have crashed out on the fourth day of last year’s Tour. Further, there are always finish line surprises. Some rider comes out of obscurity to foil the best-laid plans of the favorites, and that unpredictability adds excitement to each day.
Note that little is said here about the general classification (G.C.) contenders, those aiming to win the Tour de France overall. That is because they most often distinguish themselves in the mountains, where most of the field and especially the sprinters, suffer and fall far behind. Stages 8 and 9 feature some climbing, but the true test will come in the Pyrenees starting on Stage 12. Also, part of the secret to winning the Tour is to conserve energy. The G.C. contenders will be saving themselves for the mountains and for the coming weeks of the race. As Levi Leipheimer says, the Tour de France is a Superbowl every day for three weeks. They cannot blow their resources in the first week.
Set your DVRs and alarm clocks! It’s Tour time!
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