“The Tour is the only race that matters. And that’s gone now”: Ned Boulting on the end of free-to-air Tour de France coverage in the UK and why his new show is a piece of theatre

Send us a textFrom 2026, the familiar sights of the Tour de France – the epic mountain ranges, fields of sunflowers, Tadej Pogačar riding off into the distance – will remain the same. But for many cycling fans in the UK, the sounds will be very different.Next year’s Tour, the 25th edition of the race to be shown live on ITV, will also be the final one to be broadcast on free-to-air television in the UK, after it was announced last week that Warner Bros. Discovery and Eurosport have agreed a n...