How to watch the Tour of Flanders 2019 in Canada

The Holy Week of northern Classics begins on Sunday with a day that in Flanders is celebrated like a national holiday. De Ronde van Vlanderen is an epic 270-km race over the cobbles and bergs of the Flemish Ardennes. The race climbs 17 helligen many of which are cobbled including the fearsome duo of the Oude Kwaremont and the Paterberg which are the final challenges of the race, the Kapelmuur, and the ferocious Koppenberg.

All of Flanders comes out to spectate the race, drink beer and have a big roadside party. Canadian cycling fans will be grateful that on Sunday morning, they’ll be able to catch all the action from the comfort of their homes. The entire men’s race from start to finish along with the final two hours of the women’s race will be broadcast. How can you watch the race? On FloBikes or FuboTV.

While you may have a couple of sites in mind that could provide a dodgy stream of the racing, you can be sure it will come along with annoying pop-ups and be unreliable leaving you refreshing the page or frantically searching for another just as the action hots up. That won’t be the case with the legal alternatives where you can stream on your laptop or through Roku, Apple TV 4, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV or your IOS device.

If you want to catch the start in Antwerp and the frantic early action of establishing the days breakaway, the stream will go live at 3:30 a.m. EDT. Over the course of the next six hours, the peloton will be slowly whittled down. Attacks will fly and be chased down. Others may stick to the finish in Odernade which is scheduled for just after 11 a.m. EDT. You’ll want to tune in as early as possible though, remember two years ago Philippe Gilbert went on the attack with 100-km still to race before soloing away with over 50-km to go.

You’ll be able to catch the women’s race as of 6:38 a.m. and the action will come non-stop until the finish at 8:15 a.m. EDT. Last year, Anna van der Breggen won the women’s race while Niki Terpstra soloed to victory in the men’s event. The list of contenders in 2019 is long and the racing is sure to be unpredictable with a long list of contenders who will want to impose themselves on Flanders’ Finest.

FloBikes

To get started with FloBikes, you will need to purchase a subscription package. You can either pay monthly which will cost $30. Alternatively, you can pay for a calendar year which will cost $150. With the subscription, you can watch events live, and gain access to highlights and replays. You can watch FloBikes on your computer or using the FloSports app through Roku, Apple TV 4 or your IOS device. FloBikes also will broadcast upcoming races such as Iztulia Tour of the Basque Country, Schelderprijs, De Branbatse Pijl, Amstel Gold Race, Tour of the Alps, Tro Bro Leon, Tour de Romandie and the first Grand Tour of the season, the Giro d’Italia. It’s an impressive line-up of races for you to conveniently enjoy.

FuboTV

When you sign up for Fubo, you start with the base package ($15.99/month), which, for Canadians, includes Bein Sports, Spanish Bein Sports, Bein Sports Canada, Fight Network, FNTSY Sports Network, Fubo Network, Football Report TV, Benfica TV and Liga Portugal. If you want to watch cycling, you’ll have to pay more and get the cycling add-on which is $8.99/month. With Fubo, you can watch events on desktop, and iOS and Android phone or tablet. You can also beam the feed to your TV with Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV.