Watch The Tour de France With Us
The most anticipated and well known cycling event in the world will start on Saturday, July 7. In 2017 there were over 2,000 journalists and photographers representing 46 nationalities covering the event and 6300 hours of broadcasts on TV. The 2018 numbers are sure to grow and it will be hard not to catch a glimpse of the action. How will you watch? When will you watch? Who will you be watching for?
Laurens ten Dam will be riding in the tour for his 10th time, this year. When he’s not racing he’s spending a lot of his time training right here in Truckee. Maybe he’s flying by as you both set out to accomplish the 72 miles around Lake Tahoe or he’s sitting next to you at the coffee shop or diving into Donner Lake post ride. In a couple weeks we’ll know just where to find him. On the big screen with Team Sunweb in France. Be on the lookout for this inspiring 37 year old cyclist, husband and father of two as the top riders in the world battle for the overall yellow jersey.
Stage 17 on Wednesday, July 25 will be one to watch. This will be the shortest road stage in the race’s history. The organization is introducing a grid style start that will favor those highest in the general classification. The general classification (GC) ranks the overall leaders in the race. The overall leader is represented within the race as the rider wearing the yellow jersey. Riders will be distributed into five different groups. The first 20 riders in the general classification will be included in the first group. The remainder of riders will then position themselves freely in the other groups corresponding to their places in the general classification. When the race starts, it will be at top speed without the usual 1-10 km neutralised zone when the riders parade through town and find their positions before the official kilometer zero. Tension will be high on this day and this extra layer of difficulty will make for a challenging day pushing the pedals.
We’re going to be streaming the event daily at the shop. Stop by to watch along, share a fish story, or just to say hello over a cold draught beer.