Le Tour de France 2014

[PotomacCyclist]

The Tour de France starts off this year in Leeds, England, on Sat. July 5. Only the 2nd time that the Tour will be starting in the UK.

The U.S. soccer team was knocked out of the World Cup, so it shouldn’t matter that the World Cup continues its later rounds on Saturday. Watch the TdF instead!

NBC Sports (NBCSN) is now showing the double climb of Alpe d’Huez from last year’s Tour. NBCSN will show other stages from 2013 over the next two days, plus a preview program of this year’s race.

Live coverage of the 2014 race begins on Saturday at 6 am, with an edited version of the stage repeating throughout the day. Each stage airs live in the mornings, with edited repeats showing in the afternoons, evenings and overnight, similar to last year’s broadcast schedule.

The 2014 Tour runs from July 5 to July 27.

Chris Froome will try to defend his title. Bradley Wiggins, the 2012 champion, will not be riding. Neither will last year’s runner-up, Nairo Quintana. (Quintana did win the Giro d’Italia, just over a month ago. He wants to return to the Tour de France in 2015. He will be a serious threat to win the maillot jaune, or yellow jersey.)

http://www.letour.com/us/

http://www.nbcsports.com/cycling

Topic

[americancyclo]

I found a calendar feed of all the race times, if anyone else is interested. I found that having the FIFA calendar was helpful, and I think the TdF will be nice too:
http://openstripe.blogspot.com/2011/02/tour-de-france-ical-calendar-feed.html

Here’s how it looks in google calendar
[ATTACH=CONFIG]6127[/ATTACH]

[Steve]

@PotomacCyclist 89430 wrote:

Chris Froome will defend his title.

FTFY, unless he crashes out or something.

[creadinger]

Any other contenders worth watching? I don’t know why, but I hate Froome. Disappointing Quintana won’t be riding. I was rooting for him last year.

Also, I’m not even sure I can watch since we ditched cable. I don’t know if I want to pay for the streaming feed.

[americancyclo]

@creadinger 89440 wrote:

Also, I’m not even sure I can watch since we ditched cable. I don’t know if I want to pay for the streaming feed.

http://cyclingfans.com/ is your friend (and mine!)

[Steve]

@creadinger 89440 wrote:

Any other contenders worth watching? I don’t know why, but I hate Froome. Disappointing Quintana won’t be riding. I was rooting for him last year.

Also, I’m not even sure I can watch since we ditched cable. I don’t know if I want to pay for the streaming feed.

Contador will be billed as the biggest threat, but it’s hard for me to see that happening (though others on the forum know MUCH more than me).

[hozn]

Yeah, it might be interesting …. but it might be super boring like last year. Seems like that’ll be clear pretty quickly once they hit the hills. I love cycling, but will admit that watching the flat stages is arguably more boring than watching golf. The Giro this year was fantastic to watch. I added the Fios sports package for that and the tail of the spring classics; I was considering dropping that after the Giro, but guess I’ll suffer through and watch the Tour too

[APKhaos]

Quintana won the Giro d’Italia in May which was his first outing as team leader of the Movistar crew. His next race is the Vuelta a Espana in August. The team management say they are prepping him for a serious shot at Le Tour next year.

He was remarkable in the Tour last year and looks capable of out climbing the field in any race. Will have to wait for next year to see him in action at the TdF.

[cyclingfool]

The NBCSN preview show last night as well as a few online articles I’ve read are presenting it as Froome vs. Contador for the GC. Maybe Nibali will finally do something this year and upset the apple cart a little. Generally, I’m pulling for van Garderen and Talansky, two American GC “contenders”. Very long odds to win, or probably even podium this year for that matter, but it’ll be fun to watch.

I think the green jersey battle might be most interesting. Will Cavendish with Renshaw as his lead-out man take boocoo stages again and claim the green, or can Sagan win on strategy, consistency and lots of intermediate sprint points…?

Whatever happens, I’m psyched it’s Tour time again!!!

[MattAune]

@hozn 89455 wrote:

Yeah, it might be interesting …. but it might be super boring like last year. Seems like that’ll be clear pretty quickly once they hit the hills. I love cycling, but will admit that watching the flat stages is arguably more boring than watching golf. The Giro this year was fantastic to watch. I added the Fios sports package for that and the tail of the spring classics; I was considering dropping that after the Giro, but guess I’ll suffer through and watch the Tour too

The tour is on NBCSN, which is not a part of the sports tier. If you want any vuelta coverage you will need to have Universal Sports, though.

[hozn]

@MattAune 89477 wrote:

The tour is on NBCSN, which is not a part of the sports tier. If you want any vuelta coverage you will need to have Universal Sports, though.

Huh, I’ve always watched the tour on Universal Sports; it’s changing this year? Yeah, I don’t care about the Vuelta; apparently they’ll let anyone win that.

[hozn]

@hozn 89478 wrote:

Huh, I’ve always watched the tour on Universal Sports; it’s changing this year? Yeah, I don’t care about the Vuelta; apparently they’ll let anyone win that.

Indeed, answered my own question; it is *not* on USHD this year. So I guess I can cancel that package — thanks!

[Subby]

Can anyone point me to a good on-line preview of this year’s TdF? I loved watching it last year, but have absolutely no depth of understanding.

Yes, I realize I could google, but I am looking for a recommendation.

[creadinger]

@Subby 89480 wrote:

Can anyone point me to a good on-line preview of this year’s TdF? I loved watching it last year, but have absolutely no depth of understanding.

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/11261185.Spoof_Tour_de_France_video_proves_big_hit_online/

[vvill]

Just FYI, Dish do offer a no commitment $10/month sports package for streaming on computers/roku/tablets/phones that includes Universal Sports and BeIN amongst some other channels:
http://www.dishworld.com/packages/sports
I caught most of the Giro on it, but it does not include NBCSports’s cycling coverage.

(I love it because it has cricket too, and I cut cable last year. Stuff stays up for watching on-demand about a week before it’s unavailable. You can skip all ad breaks unless you’re watching live. The labeling of cycling and cricket programming sucks though, everything is just titled “Cycling”, for example.)

@Subby 89480 wrote:

Can anyone point me to a good on-line preview of this year’s TdF? I loved watching it last year, but have absolutely no depth of understanding.

Yes, I realize I could google, but I am looking for a recommendation.

I’m not that well-versed in reading previews or pro racing, but I like this one
http://www.podiumcafe.com/2014/7/1/5856664/viewers-guide-to-the-2014-tour-de-france-endangered-and-threatened

[Dickie]

@APKhaos 89456 wrote:

Quintana won the Giro d’Italia in May which was his first outing as team leader of the Movistar crew. The team management say they are prepping him for a serious shot at Le Tour next year.

Shame Movistar didn’t know the stages before that decision was made… with this year’s Tour being so light on TT’s he might have had a chance. Next year will certainly be TT heavy… can’t see him competing with the “Froome stick” in that type of race.

[Author]

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