For the 24th year in succession, I head to the Tour de France. This year, however, things will be very different. There will be no big TV truck, nor accreditation hanging around my neck. No Gary Imlach and his polo shirts, nor Chris Boardman, with his easy-dry non-iron performance leisurewear. No Matt Rendell, nor Daniel Friebe, none of my many friends and colleagues whose names you cannot be expected to know, but whose work you might have been watching if you happened upon the ITV coverage of the last quarter century.
Ned is a British sports journalist, television presenter and podcaster, best known for his Tour de France coverage for ITV Sport and his podcast, Never Strays Far. To sign up to news about “NSF – Live in France” visit www.neverstraysfar.com
There will, however, be David Millar. David, along with Pete Kennaugh, Lizzie Deignan and myself have got together with Crowd Network, the team behind Watts Occurring and many other huge sports podcasts, and launched For The Love of Cycling. It is, for those of you who may have been listeners, a natural evolution of the much-loved Never Strays Far podcast, which often strayed so far from the subject as to not mention cycling at all! But “FTLoC” will have the Tour de France (Hommes and Femmes) at its very heart. And not just the Tour, but all cycling , all year round. Like ITV, it will of course be free to listen to, and to watch on YouTube.
We had initially hoped to be able this year to live stream a form of watch-along commentary. But, at least for now, the commercial, technical and legal hurdles were too high a bar in the first year. Instead, David and I, plus Lizzie and Pete when they can, will be at the roadsides of the Tour every day, catching the race as the fans that we are, watching it on French TV from cafés and bars, before producing a daily podcast as quickly as we can after the end of each stage.
This way, we will reflect on the race, as well as bring you a flavour of our own journeys of discovery around the country we all love so dearly. I do hope you sign up and subscribe for free in your thousands!
It will be strange for both David and for me not to be commentating. I have no doubt that, from time to time, we’ll fall back into old habits and start getting excitable in bunch sprints, drawing puzzled looks from our fellow afternoon Tour watchers in whichever little French village we have turned up in. But, equally, we are both thrilled by the sudden freedoms we can enjoy now we are fully in charge of our own content, free from the constraints of a mainstream broadcaster, and able to express ourselves more fully and naturally.
The same will be true for both races, as well. Lizzie will join us briefly during the men’s race, but will accompany me all the way around the women’s race. Pete will pop up from time to time, when his Astana commitments allow, and already we are building a list of other exciting potential guests.
Last year I was involved in some early conversations about continuing to work for TV, but honestly my heart was no longer in it. This feels to me like a whole new adventure and I actually cannot wait to get going. Vive le Tour!
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