How to watch the 2021 Tour de France in Canada

La Grande Boucle is almost here

Photo by: Sirotti

Lily Hansen-Gillis June 25, 2021

After a year of turmoil and a rescheduled September 2020 start date, the Tour de France has (almost) returned to its regular schedule. The 2021 edition of la Grand Boucle will get underway on June 26 and run until July 18, 2021. Canadians can tune in to the Tour de France on Flobikes.

The event was originally scheduled to take place June 2-25 but had to be moved to avoid overlapping with the rescheduled 2020 Olympics. The first stage of the race (known as the Grand Départ) was also supposed to kick off in Copenhagen, Denmark, but, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was transferred to Brest, France.

Teams and schedule

Twenty-three teams made up of eight cyclists each will race for 21 days, covering 3,383 kilometres of road. All nineteen UCI WorldTeams are required to enter the race, and they will be joined by four UCI ProTeams: Alpecin–Fenix, Arkéa–Samsic, B&B Hotels p/b KTM and Team TotalEnergies.

The race will include the longest stage since the 2000 Tour de France, with a 248-kilometre medium-mountain route on stage seven.

The stages vary in their elevation profiles. There are six mountain, eight flat, two ITT, three medium-mountain and one hilly. Cyclists also get two rest days, on July 5 and 12.

Canadians at the Tour

There will be three Canadians at the Tour, the most since 2013. Last week Israel Start-up Nation announced its eight riders for the Tour, which includes Michael Woods and Guillaume Boivin. On June 21 Astana–Premier Tech announced its lineup, which featured Canadian cyclist Hugo Houle.

How to watch the 2021 Tour de France

FloBikes will be exclusively streaming the 2020 Tour de France on their online platforms. The race will run from Jun. 26-Jul. 18.