Advertisement
Tour de France
LifestyleTravel & Leisure

Tour de France 2020: watch it for views of French countryside alone – the cycling is a sideshow

  • This year’s Tour de France should get underway on August 29 and is particularly important for professional teams struggling due to Covid-19
  • Viewers can see Nice, the French Riviera, Provence, the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Champs Élysées in all their glory

Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
Tour de France riders cycle through the Pyrenees during the 2016 competition. The annual race is a visual feast, almost as much about the scenery as it is about the racing. Photo: Steve Thomas
Steve Thomas

You don’t have to be a cycling fan to become hooked on the Tour de France. For some, the racing is a sideshow to a three-week grand visual tour of the country. With live coverage of up to eight hours a day (plus highlight programmes) being beamed to almost every corner of the planet, the Tour provides glimpses of France’s most impressive sights and scenery, many of which are rarely seen outside the race coverage.

The Tour de France dates back to 1903 and unlike stadium- or track-based sports, cycling provides a free-to-view spectacle for supporters who wish to cheer along from the roadside. Those who watch from home, though, arguably get a better viewing experience.

Depending on the daily stage and what’s happening in the competition, television coverage switches between in-race motorbike cameras, roadside shots and aerial footage. This breadth of coverage, almost unparalleled in sporting terms, guarantees a global audience that draws sponsors and advertisers, without whom professional cycling would be in financial strife. This year’s Tour represents a particular lifeline for a number of professional teams close to folding due to Covid-19 restrictions.

With the TV coverage showing off the country at its finest, the race has always been something of a goose that lays golden eggs for the French tourism industry. Although this year’s race remains wholly in France, usually the Tour has stages in neighbouring countries, with host towns and regions paying a premium for the privilege. This investment can pay off handsomely, as it did when the “Grand Départ” – the start of the course – was held in Leeds, England, in 2014. The world got to see the Yorkshire Dales from above, bathed in sunshine, which led to a boost in related tourism over the following years.

Steep hill roads provide a challenge for cyclists and a visual treat for viewers. Photo: Steve Thomas
Steep hill roads provide a challenge for cyclists and a visual treat for viewers. Photo: Steve Thomas
Ironically for the cycling-mad French (who last won the race in 1985), it was the brash, and since disgraced, Texan racer Lance Armstrong who most boosted the race’s profile to the outside world. Armstrong was the first true superstar of cycling, and his seven consecutive victories in the Tour (which he was later stripped of following a doping scandal) secured lengthy TV coverage in the United States. Largely thanks to Armstrong, hundreds of thousands of Americans began tuning in to the daily race coverage in the early 2000s, learning in the process that there was far more to France than Paris.
Advertisement