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How to get your Tour de France fix this summer

La grande boucle is postponed until the end of August. Here's how to stay occupied until then

As of June 4, the 2020 Tour de France is scheduled to take place Aug. 29– Sep. 20, 2020. Those looking forward to the biggest three weeks in cycling will have be eagerly anticipating that first stage for longer than usual this year, but there are a few options to fill the yellow jersey shaped hole in your heart as you wait.

27-07-2019 Tour De France; Tappa 20 Albertville – Val Thorens; 2019, Movistar; Landa Meana, Mikel; Quintana Rojas Nairo, Alexander; Val Thorens;

1. FloBikes rebroadcast of the 2019 Tour de France

FloBikes was set to broadcast the 2020 Tour de France starting. June 27 this summer, but viewers will have to wait a few extra months to tune in. For now, the streaming service has partnered with ASO to rebroadcast the entire 2019 Tour de France, beginning June 6 and running through June 26. Live and on demand stages will be available to Canadian viewers, with daily highlights, analyses, and other premium content available.

2. Read up on the history of the Tour

There are tons of books about the Tour de France—the 107 editions of the race are rich with history, lore, tales of triumph and tales of defeat.

The First Tour de France: Sixty Cyclists and Nineteen Days of Daring on the Road to Paris– by Peter Cossins

This book explores the 1903 Tour de France, the inception of the race. The first Tour was dramatic, adventurous and full of mishaps.

“Cyclists of the time weren’t enthusiastic about participating in this “heroic” race on roads more suited to hooves than wheels, with bikes weighing up to thirty-five pounds, on a single fixed gear, for three full weeks. Assembling enough riders for the race meant paying unemployed amateurs from the suburbs of Paris, including a butcher, a chimney sweep and a circus acrobat. From Maurice “The White Bulldog” Garin, an Italian-born Frenchman whose parents were said to have swapped him for a round of cheese in order to smuggle him into France as a fourteen-year-old, to Hippolyte Aucouturier, who looked like a villain from a Buster Keaton movie with his jersey of horizontal stripes and handlebar moustache, the cyclists were a remarkable bunch.

Starting in the Parisian suburb of Montgeron, the route took the intrepid cyclists through Lyon, over the hills to Marseille, then on to Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Nantes, ending with great fanfare at the Parc des Princes in Paris. There was no indication that this ramshackle cycling pack would draw crowds to throng France’s rutted roads and cheer the first Tour heroes. But they did; and all thanks to a marketing ruse, cycling would never be the same again.”

Tour de France 100– by Richard Moore

Published in the run-up to the 100th Tour de France, Tour de France 100 celebrates 110 years of the Tour. It captures key visual moments in its history, including heroes of the race, great rivalries, moments of high drama, accidents and scandals. The photos are accompanied by Richard Moore’s authoritative text that illuminates and expands upon the imagery.

3. Follow a few top contenders on Strava

Although most pro cyclists are certainly not logging all their rides to Strava (and some don’t post on Strava at all), it’s always fun to see the 200km+ training rides the pros casually post. Riders such as Tadej Pogačar, Richie Porte, and Thibaut Pinot all have public Strava profiles. On the Canadian end, its highly motivating to watch Mike Woods recover from his broken leg and return to the road in Spain.