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The Tour de France’s wheels started to turn on 1 July and for the past few weeks has rolled through the east and south of the world’s favourite tourist destinations.
TG4, Eurosport and Sky Sports are covering the daily schedule where, among the 198 riders from 22 teams, Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin will be hoping to pull off the stage win that has eluded Irish cyclists since the 1980s.
The tour will be won and lost on Day 18 at Briacon on the Italian border, the thigh-burning 31.5km killer climb to the Casse Déserte on the approach to Col d’Izoard.
It’s an iconic Tour de France location and one of the 40 or so that organisers throw their hands up and say is literally “beyond categorisation”.
With the riders in the saddle for between three and six hours each day (that’s gotta hurt), there is lots of time for chat.
And former Irish cycling superhero Sean Kelly on the Eurosport commentary team is just the man for the job. He’s the guy who had been in the saddle, year after year, topping world rankings, winning sprint after sprint and green jersey after green jersey (four in eight years), but never, crucially, the tour itself.
He likes his phrases does Sean (“suffering majorly” is one of his classics). And his warm Wexford accent makes for easy listening.
Sean and his co-commentator Rob Hatch know when to talk and, crucially, when to stay schtum and enjoy the race and the breath-taking views.
And that’s the thing about The Tour - it isn’t just about the cycling.
That’s only part of it. You gotta love the crowds - running with the cyclists, bellowing support and sometimes distracting and unbalancing them (it’s a test of patience and fitness for them!).
You can catch your Tour stage coverage from start to finish on Sky Sports, TG4 (ch 104) and on Eurosport
(ch 423).
Tour de France 2017: Official app with Aumury, all the videos including go-pro camera footage carried by riders.
Tour Tracker: Multiple features includes tracking GPS transponders on the bikes of all 198 riders.
Sky Sports: Sky Sports customers can get the latest sports stories as they break on the Sky Sports app by using your Virgin Media Customer login.