I am not what could be described as a sports fan. My interest in the national game extends to knowing enough to make a passing comment should anyone ask. Rugby; I know nothing about apart from it’s a game played by men with odd shaped balls.
Motor sports? What’s all that about?
But I do like to watch a bit of cycling especially the annual grand tour that is the Tour de France.
This three thousand, three hundred kilometre race, which started in Barcelona, will wind it’s way into and around France before finishing in Paris in three weeks time.
In the past, few years, each stage has been shown live on Channel 4 plus a highlights show every evening. Being retired meant that I could watch each stage unfold as the various jerseys changed hands as the race progressed.
However, from this year, the coverage is no longer free. Well, not strictly true as the highlights show has moved over to Channel 5 but the live, as it happens, feed requires a subscription to TNT sports at £30 per month for a year !
Apparently, there are some, convoluted workarounds involving VPNs but I’m one for the easy life.
On Saturday, the first day of this year’s tour, I came across Stream hub TV. For $24.66 I get two months worth of sports from around the world.
Now, as I said earlier, I’m not a great sports fan but for someone who is, this looks like good value. Even for a month of TDF, I’m willing to pay less than twenty quid.
Once paid for, I fired up the webpage and navigated my way to cycling – in this case on Eurosport. Going back (as I so often do) I remember Eurosport broadcasting in English but, alas, no longer. Today’s offering was initially in French but then switched to, I’m guessing, Dutch. Obviously, I couldn’t follow the dialogue but the graphic told the story.
I did have the option to watch TNT Sports coverage on Stream Hub but for some reason there was no sound.
Yesterday, we were out at my daughter’s when I fired up a browser on my phone just to check on the race. Oddly, TNT had sound today. My daughter asked what I was watching. “I’m sure we can get that on the TV”. I explained that it would be pay per view but she said that her partner, who was sports mad, may well be paying for the privilege. Sure enough, we found TNT Sports and we were able to watch the final forty kilometres of stage two.
We (mainly me but with a little input from Sue) had to explain some of the intricacies of the Tour – they were especially intrigued by the ‘sticky bottle’.
We watched until the finish when I was delighted to see that Jonas Vingegaad, finishing fourth, retained the yellow jersey, ahead of Tadej Pogačar.
Today, I am hoping to jump back on my bike and watch live Tour coverage as I ride.
The Sticky Bottle (bidon collé)
The sticky bottle is an exhausted cyclist’s best friend. When the rider finds himself dropped from the peloton, the team manager speeds up the car to get alongside them. As soon as the rider is within reach, the manager hands them a water bottle from the open window. And now comes the fated moment…
While the handover is in process, both sides ‘stick’ to the bottle tightly so the rider can gain some extra push from the car’s momentum. The trick is called a sticky bottle because both persons’ hands look completely glued to the bottle.