The 101st Tour de France begins on Sunday morning but the first stage isn’t in France at all. Stage 1 begins in Leeds in West Yorkshire, England, which seems fitting since 2013 winner Chris Froome is the favorite to win in 2014, and the leader of Britain’s Team Sky.
Tour de France 2014, Stage 1: Route, TV schedule and more
For the first time since 2007, the Tour de France has a stage in England, where the 2014 race begins.
Doug Pensinger
“Britain has been successful the last years in world cycling,” said Mark Cavendish, a teammate of Froome in 2012. “That is a massive part of why the Tour de France comes to the U.K.”
Stage 1 begins in Leeds, and runs 190.5 kilometers (roughly 118 miles) mostly flat to Harrogate. The 2014 race is the fourth edition of the Tour de France to contain stages in England -- the first three of 21 stages take place in the United Kingdom.
The opening stage begins at 11 a.m. local time, or 6 a.m. ET. Television coverage begins live on NBCSN at 6 a.m. and runs through noon, with Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen on the call alongside reporters Steve Schlanger, Carolyn Manno and Steve Porino. NBC will pick up coverage at 2 p.m. for one hour.
NBCSN will begin a nightly studio show, Tour Primetime, from 8-11 p.m., with host Todd Harris and analysts Bob Roll and Christian Vande Velde.
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