British Eurosport, the spiritual home of the Tour de France, is ready to bring you every minute of the world’s toughest cycling race. With live studio, Duffers’ commentary, reporting from roadside, interviews with the biggest names, and expert analysis, they will follow every inch of this year’s race. And with this being Lance Armstrong’s final appearance, it is sure to be an historic tour.
The Tour de France 2005 will run from 2–24 July. British Eurosport will broadcast up to 85 hours of action from the 21 stages, which this year covers 3,584 km.
Everyday before and after each stage, presenter James Richardson will be joined by expert David Duffield LIVE from studio to offer in-depth analysis of the day’s events, with Duffers on hand they’ll be plenty of ‘cheese-y chat’ then. The channel will feature up to 30 minutes of preview and discussion before every stage followed by a further 30 minutes of studio reaction and review at the end of each day’s cycling.
The commentary team of David Harmon and Sean Kelly will provide comprehensive coverage, from the opening day’s time trial in Fromentine to the finale on the Champs Elysees in Paris. They will be accompanied along the way by the contraversial former pro and multi-polka-dot winner Richard Virenque, who will bring you interviews with all the top riders and teams throughout the Tour.
Reporter Christi Anderson will bring immediate updates on the breaking news from roadside. Every night the coverage will be followed by a highlights programme, bringing all the main news of the day. A camera crew will be following a different team each day from one of the cars of the team managers.
The 2005 Tour de France begins on Saturday July 2nd with a 19km Time Trial from Fromentine to Noirmoutier-en-I’lle. Coverage starts at 15.30 through to 19.00 on British Eurosport. Can’t wait.
Friday 1st July Preview and Presentation of Teams
Live 18:00-19:30
Saturday 2nd July Stage 1: Fromentine to Noirmoutier-en-I’lle 19km (TT)
Studio 15:30-19:00
Highlights 21:00-22:00
Sunday 3rd July Stage 2: Challans to Les Essarts 181.5km
Live 13:00-17:15
Highlights 21:00-22:00
Monday 4th July Stage 3: La Chataigneraie to Tours 212.5km
Live 13:00-17:15
Highlights 21:00-22:00
Tuesday 5th July Stage 4: Tours to Blois 67.5km (team/TT)
Live 13:15-17:30
Highlights 21:30-22:30
Wednesday 6th July Stage 5: Chambord to Montargis 183km
Live 13:15-17:30
Highlights 21:00-22:00
Thursday 7th July Stage 6: Troyes to Nancy 199km
Live 13:15-17:30
Highlights 21:00-22:00
Friday 8th July Stage 7: Luneville to Karlsruhe 228.5km
Live 13:15-17:15
Highlights 21:00-22:00
Saturday 9th July Stage 8: Pforzheim to Gerardmer 231.5km
Live 10:30-17:15
Highlights 21:00-22:00
Sunday 10th July Stage 9: Gerardmer to Mulhouse 171km
Live 10:45-16:45
Highlights 21:00-22:00
Tuesday 12th July Stage 10: Grenoble to Courchevel 192.5km
Live 13:00-17:15
Highlights 21:00-22:00
Wednesday 13th July Stage 11: Courchevel to Briancon 173km
Live 11:00-17:15
Highlights 21:00-22:15
Thursday 14th July Stage 12: Briancon to Digne-les-Bains 187km
Live 12:00-17:00
Highlights 21:00-22:15
Friday 15th July Stage 13: Miramas to Montpellier 173.5km
Live 13:00-17:15
Highlights 21:00-22:00
Saturday 16th July Stage 14: Agde to Ax-3 Domaines 220.5km
Live 13:00-17:15
Highlights 21:00-22:00
Sunday 17th July Stage 15: Lezat-sur-Leze to Saint-Lary Soulan (Pla d’Adet) 205.5km
Live 13:15-17:30
Tuesday 19th July Stage 16: Mourenx to Pau 180.5km
Live 12:00-17:30
Highlights 21:00-22:00
Wednesday 20th July Stage 17: Pau to Revel 239.5km
Live 13:00-17:15
Highlights 21:00-22:00
Thursday 21st July Stage 18: Albi to Mende 189km
Live 13:00-17:15
Highlights 20:30-21:30
Friday 22nd July Stage 19: Issoire to Le Puy-en-Velay 153.5km
Live 15:15-17:15
Highlights 21:00-22:00
Saturday 23rd July Stage 20: Saint-Etienne to Saint-Etienne 55km (TT)
Live 15:15-17:15
Highlights 21:00-22:00
Sunday 24th July Stage 21: Corbeil-Essonnes to Paris Champ-Elysees 144km
Live 16:30-17:15
For more from Eurosport go here
ITV Coverage
Le Tour De France returns to ITV in July for 3 weeks of action of the world’s most famous cycling race.
Le Tour 2005 gets underway exclusively on ITV2 on Saturday 2nd July at 4.30pm. The programme has two hours of coverage of the first stage, a 19km time-trial from Fromentine to Noirmoutier-en-l’Ile.
The following day exclusive coverage of stage two on ITV2 starts at 2.35pm covering the 181km from Challans to Les Essarts.
The daily highlights programme will be shown Monday to Friday at 7.00pm on ITV2 with the ITV1 highlights programme at 11.30pm on Monday nights.
The programmes are presented by Gary Imlach, with commentary by Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen, analysis from Chris Boardman and reports from Ned Boulting.
