The wait is nearly over for the biggest bike race of the year, the Tour de France 2024. Like us, you'll probably be wanting to tune in and watch, so we've put together a comprehensive guide to exactly how you can watch everything from live coverage to highlights of this iconic Grand Tour.
It should be an exciting battle for overall victory, with four potential winners all vying for the maillot jaune. Reigning champion Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike), Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) and Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) are the men most likely, although newly-anointed Giro d'Italia champion Pogačar is the only rider to have come through the early season unscathed. The other three have missed training time after tangling with each other in the same crash in Itzulia Basque Country in April.
Vingegaard was the worst affected, and in early June there was still a question mark over whether he would definitely be at the Tour de France, but he was announced on the start list the week before the race.
There are plenty of sprinting opportunities scattered throughout the race. Last year's green jersey Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) will be the man to beat, pushed hard others including Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Fabio Jakobsen (dsm-firmenich-PostNL). Many eyes will also be on Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan), who returns for his last Tour de France in the hope of finally beating the all-time 35-stage-win record that he is currently tied on with Eddy Merckx.
The final stage sees the race make way for the Paris Olympic Games and finish outside the capital for the first time in history, with a time trial from Monaco to Nice.
Check out our page on the Tour de France 2024 route for everything you need to know about the 21 stages from Florence to Nice, and look at our almost complete start list for the race.
This will be the first Tour since GCN+ closed down, so make sure you read our how to watch guide carefully to make sure you can be fully tuned in.
When is the Tour de France?
The Tour de France will begin in Florence on June 29, and finish three weeks later on July 21 in Nice. Individual stages will be broadcast in full on Discovery+.
Check your chosen streaming service in your territory for broadcast times of individual stages.
How to watch the Tour de France for free
The Tour de France is free to watch in Australia on SBS On Demand.
Streaming services are often geo-restricted, so if you're an Aussie away from home, make sure to use a VPN to watch your free Tour de France live stream from abroad.
We'll show you how to do that just below with NordVPN, which comes highly recommended via our sister site TechRadar.
How to watch the Tour de France live stream in the UK
Eurosport.co.uk and discovery+ are the homes of cycling in the UK. Subscriptions are £6.99 per month. There's also an annual plan for discovery+ at £59.99, if you're after the full race calendar of live streams.
How to watch the Tour de France live stream in the USA
Bike racing fans in the US will be able to watch the Tour de France on the FloBikes platform. The TV app is available on Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast and Apple TV, as well as on Android and iOS. Subscriptions cost $150 per year.
