The Tour de France 2023 is the oldest and most prestigious cycling competition in the world. It is loved by fans and riders alike, and is actually the most watched sporting event in the world. But while the Frenchies have easy access to all the action, if you want to watch the Tour de France live stream UK, you’ll need a few extra steps. Keep reading to find out my trick for how to watch Tour de France online from just about anywhere in the world.
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Last updated: 4 December 2023
How to watch Tour de France UK
- Europe: GCN
- United States: NBC, ESPN
- United Kingdom: Eurosport
Europe
If you happen to be in any European country outside the UK, you will need to rely on GCN. It’s a dedicated streaming platform that will let you catch every second of the action, even on mobile.
United States
If you happen to be living across the pond, then NBC will be where you can catch the Tour. You can find it on the television or watch Tour de France online free when it’s live. It’s also going to be available on ESPN.
United Kingdom
Eurosport is a common place to watch Tour de France online or on TV. For British fans with a Virgin or Sky subscription, you should be able to access Tour de France live streaming directly on your telly via the Eurosport 1 channel.
If you want, you can sign up to Eurosport directly for £39.99 a month. That way you can watch Tour de France live stream free or anything else that you like.
The Best Streaming Sites to Stream Tour de France
Depending on where you’re living, you will need to access different streaming sites to watch the Tour de France. Let’s see what these sites are, before we mention a major issue that you will have to face.
France: France TV
The French nationals wouldn’t allow their countrymen to miss the chance to watch Tour de France live stream in the UK. Thankfully, you can catch every moment of the exhilarating race on the France TV streaming platform.
United Kingdom: ITV
In all the years since the Tour de France has been streamed online, ITV has been the go-to streaming platform for British viewers. If ads don’t bother you, you can watch the race for free. But for an ad-free experience, you’ll need to pay £5.99 per month.
Belgium: RTBF
The Tour de France also has a loyal fan base in Belgium, particularly in the French communities. For those dedicated viewers, the RTBF allows you to watch Tour de France online from start to finish. It’s a free broadcasting service, and you can catch the race and all its highlights for free online.
Spain: RTVE
For the Spanish audience, RTVE is the only answer when it comes to watch Tour de France online. It’s the largest state-owned broadcasting company in Spain. So you know that you won’t be at risk of missing out on anything that goes on in the race.
Watch Tour de France Live Stream in the UK
If you’ve got a subscription for any of the platforms above, you still won’t be able to watch e online if you’re not in the country. Yep, if you search for “watch Tour de France live stream UK”, but then leave the country on holiday, you’ll be back at square one. And it’s because of television rights…
The owners of the tournament sell the Tour de France broadcasting rights to Eurosport and ITV4, but only for the United Kingdom. Therefore, if you’re outside the UK during the Tour, you won’t have access to live streaming. And it’s the same for US-based NBC subscribers or SBS fans that are travelling outside Australia.
So, how to watch Tour de France from anywhere?
How to watch Tour de France live stream in the UK – and beyond
These channels’ geo-restrictions are based on the IP address of your device. If you can find a way to hide or replace your IP, you’ll be able to watch Tour de France live stream in the UK and beyond.
With a VPN (virtual private network), you can emulate an IP address so that it looks like you’re in the UK – meaning there’s no reason for streaming platforms to stop your stream.
But how does it work?
When you connect to a VPN server (that’s located in the UK), all your online traffic travels through an encrypted tunnel to the server. This encryption means nobody can see what you’re doing or what you’re trying to access online. The server then connects to the channel’s website on your behalf and displays its own IP address rather than yours.
As a result, the streaming site will believe you’re looking at how to watch Tour de France while actually being in the UK.
All of this means that when you want to watch Tour de France live stream UK, or don’t want to miss the action while you’re travelling, you can use a VPN to access SBS, NBC, France 2 and more.
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Watch Tour de France live stream in the UK with a free VPN
I have bad news: In this world, nothing’s really free. And that’s certainly true for VPNs claiming to as such.
The people or organizations offering free VPNs are not NGOs. Behind their service is an expensive network with hardware, software and employees. And if they’re not charging you, can you guess how they pay for it? You know the saying: “If You’re Not Paying For It, You Become The Product”, right? Well, if you don’t pay for your VPN, your navigation data and your online habits are probably up for grabs.
While the best VPNs are not free, they’re cheap. And the best ones on the market often offer a free trial or cool deal. Cheap VPNs can cost as little as £2.50 for a month. And you can subscribe for only a month. However, if you subscribe for 6 months or a year, you can get a much better deal, with over 50% discount.
What’s more, my favourite VPN, ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. So you can pay your £2.50 subscription, watch Tour de France online and if you’re not happy with the service within 30 days, you can get your money back.
So if you’ve found this post while looking for how to watch the Tour de France, you’ve just bagged yourself an extra little deal to maximize your watching experience. You’re welcome.
Best VPNs to watch Tour de France online
Below, I’ve ranked the best VPNs to help you watch Tour de France live stream UK and beyond. I’ve chosen these as the best in terms of value for money, speed of connection and number of servers.
Additional benefits of a VPN
By now, you should have gathered that VPNs allow you to watch Tour de France live stream in the UK, bypass censorship and access all restricted content. But that’s not it. The tool actually has a lot of other benefits.
To start, VPNs were created to protect company their data on the Internet. Employees connecting outside the office were accessing sensitive data, and this data could have been stolen by competitors or hackers. As a solution, the VPN was born so that employees could continue to work from home without jeopardizing the company’s security.
As such, a VPN can be used by just about anyone to improve privacy and security. The encrypted tunnel between your device and its server protects your data from snoopers (your ISP, your government, or hackers).
Another benefit is the prevention of data throttling. No matter what type of speed and connection you pay for through your internet package, your ISP will almost definitely throttle your data at some point. When they detect you’re streaming or gaming online, they reduce your bandwidth to share with others – meaning you get to enjoy annoying lagging and buffering. With a VPN, this issue is gone, and you can watch Tour de France live stream UK worry-free. This is the same for public networks. If you’re wanting to watch Tour de France live stream UK in a hotel or public place, the connection usually isn’t fast enough. With a VPN, you should experience much less lagging due to data throttling.
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And that’s how to watch Tour de France
In this guide, hopefully, I’ve given you enough information so that you can watch Tour de France live stream in the UK, the US, Australia and pretty much everywhere in the world. Even if a channel in your country isn’t offering its own stream, you can use a VPN to watch Tour de France online while you cross country borders.
To make it easier, I’ve done the hard work for you and found the best VPNs for the job – and even given you access to an awesome 30-day deal. Being able to watch Tour de France live stream UK isn’t the only benefit of a VPN, either, which I’ve proven – making them totally worth the tiny price tag.
So what are you waiting for? Install ExpressVPN now and get ready to watch Tour de France live stream in the UK and beyond.
