The 2025 Tour de France starts today, Saturday July 5, and Cycling Weekly has all the details right here on how to watch stage 1 wherever you are in the world.
The opening stage of the 2025 Tour de France is a 184.9-kilometre route that starts and finishes in Lille in north-east France. There are three categorised climbs on the menu but the roads are largely flat and a bunch sprint is expected in Lille.
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep), Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) are among the leading contenders for the first yellow jersey of the race.
We have a full Tour de France TV guide, or read on for all the key details on how to watch Tour de France stage 1 online, on TV, wherever you are in the world.
Watch Tour de France stage 1 in the UK
In the UK, stage 1 at the Tour de France will be broadcast live in full on ITV4, ITVX, TNT Sports 1, and Discovery+.
ITV's coverage is totally free, on ITV4 for terrestrial TV viewers and ITVX for those watching online. Coverage starts at 11:45am BST.
TNT Sports 1 is the channel for pay-TV viewers, and Discovery+ (£30.99/month) is its streaming platform, where you'll also find bonus features like 'quad-screen'. Coverage starts at midday in both cases.
How to watch stage 1 of the Tour de France in the US and Canada
In the US, fans can watch stage 1 of the Tour de France on NBC, where coverage starts at 8am ET. NBC's streaming platform is Peacock ($7.99/month), where online viewers can tune in a little earlier.
Over the border in Canada, cycling streamer FloBikes ($39.99/month) is showing stage 1 of the Tour de France, with its feed firing up at 7am ET.
Watch the Tour de France stage 1 for free in Australia
Fans in Australia can watch stage 1 of the Tour de France on the main SBS channel and the SBS On Demand streaming platform, with coverage starting at 9pm AEST. Both are free to watch.
Can I watch stage 1 of the Tour de France for free?
You can watch stage 1 of the Tour de France today for free on ITV4 and ITVX in the UK, and on SBS and SBS On Demand in Australia. Additionally, many European countries – including France, Spain, Italy, and Belgium – have free Tour de France coverage via public broadcasters.
Stage 1 of the Tour de France is on the ITV4 terrestrial TV channel and the ITVX streaming platform, which is free to use with a registration.
How to watch Tour de France stage 1 from anywhere
Most streaming platforms have geo-restrictions these days, which means they only work in certain countries. But being locked out of the races is a thing of the past thanks to a VPN.
A Virtual Private Network is a piece of internet security software that can alter your device's location, so you can unblock your usual streaming services, even when you're abroad.
NordVPN is the best, according to our friends across the office at TechRadar and Tom's Guide.
Most broadcasters are showing stage 1 of the Tour de France in full, from the first kilometre to the last, today.
In the UK, ITV's coverage of stage 1 of the Tour de France starts at 11:45, nearly a full hour before the stage gets underway, while TNT Sports and Discovery+ get going at midday.
In the US, NBC's coverage starts at 08:00, just after the start of the stage, although you can tune in earlier if streaming via Peacock.
It's a late one for fans in Australia; SBS' coverage of stage 1 of the Tour de France starts at 21:00.
Disclaimer
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
Thank you for reading 20 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Patrick manages the How To Watch content across Cycling Weekly and the other sports publications at Future. He's an NCTJ qualified journalist with a decade of experience in digital sports media. He spent eight years at Cyclingnews between 2015 and 2023, latterly as Deputy Editor.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
