Seven Tour de France stages to be broadcast live for free in UK on Welsh channel S4C

Tadej Pogačar climbs ahead of Jonas Vingegaard at Tour de France — (Image credit: Getty Images)

Fans in the UK wanting to watch the Tour de France live for free have a lifeline in Welsh-language channel S4C.

Also available on BBC iPlayer, S4C will show live coverage of stages 1, 2, 3, 18, 19, 20 and 21. This means fans will be able to watch the key Grand Départ stages in Catalonia, and the denoument on Alpe d'Huez and in Paris, although coverage will obviously be in Welsh.

This season will be the first season in decades that the Tour will not be shown live, in full, on television for free in the UK. In 2025, it was revealed that ITV would no longer televise the Tour, the exclusive UK rights having been sold to Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), the parent company of TNT Sports.

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Live English coverage in the UK will remain on TNT Sports and HBO Max, with contracts costing £30.99 a month, although it can be purchased for £25.99 a month on a 12-month contract.

However, free-to-air highlights will be shown on 5 for the first time this summer. The terrestrial channel, formerly Channel 5, has signed a deal until 2028 to show daily coverage of Tour, as well as highlights of the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, presented by Rebecca Charlton.

The station will also show live coverage of the UK Grands Départs of the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2027. Highlights will be on 5 at 7pm every evening, starting Saturday 4 July in Barcelona. Daily highlights of the 2027 Tour de France Femmes will also be available on 5.

S4C is also in negotiations to cover the Tour de France in 2027 when it begins in the UK and passes through Wales for the first time in its history.

This year, the presenting team includes Rhodri Gomer, Peredur ap Gwynedd, also known as a guitarist for Pendulum, Gruff Lewis and Manon Lloyd.

Ap Gwynedd said: "I am very happy that S4C is broadcasting the Tour de France once again, for the 13th year in a row. It's pretty bonkers that we've broadcast the race since 2014. And of course, with a stage of the Tour taking place in Wales next year, the word 'exciting' doesn't even come close to how I feel about the future!"

Stages 1, 2, 3, 19, 20 and 21 will be shown on S4C, S4C Clic, BBC iPlayer and S4C Chwaraeon’s YouTube channel, while stage 18 will be on just S4C Clic, BBC iPlayer.

Read our full guide on how to watch the 2026 Tour de France here.

Adam is Cycling Weekly’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling, he's happy. Before joining CW in 2021 he spent two years writing for Procycling. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds.

Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to riding bikes.