“Feels like cycling coverage is about to go back to the dark ages”: Cycling fans blast “disgrace” as Eurosport Player set to shut down after Tour de France; Froome acts (again) and misses Tour; Visma/Intermarché bike colour wars + more on the live blog

Cycling fans in parts of Europe, the US, and Australia were greeted today with the news they’ve been dreading since the demise of the GCN+ app late last year, after it was revealed today that Eurosport’s Premium subscription service is set to close down the day after the Tour de France ends, with subscribers told to instead sign up for Discovery+ and HBO Max – and pay a significantly larger sum to watch live cycling.

According to an email sent to a Eurosport Premium subscriber today, the Eurosport Player is to be discontinued from 22 July, the day after the Tour’s Nice finale, but before the Olympic Games and the Tour de France Femmes.

Instead, viewers in certain parts of Europe, such as Belgium and the Netherlands, have been recommended to subscribe to streaming platform Max, while fans in the UK, Ireland, Germany, and Italy are told to find their cycling on Discovery+.

> Global Cycling Network set to close GCN+ and GCN app in December due to “changing media industry landscape”

As noted at the time of GCN+’s demise last year, the end of cycling’s first, extremely popular dedicated streaming app marked part of Warner Bros. Discovery’s plans to consolidate all its content – from all of its sports to documentaries, films, and reality series – on one platform.

This week’s news is further evidence of that shift, it seems, and means for many cycling fans having to pay a higher price for content they don’t actually want – with one European viewer quoting €15 a month for a HBO subscription with the sport add-on package – when, just 12 months ago, they could subscribe to an app with only wall-to-wall cycling coverage (of course, all of that coverage still exists on Discovery and HBO, it’s just mixed in with everything else).

Which hasn’t gone down too well with armchair viewers who predicted that Discovery’s ‘content consolidation’ would not work in the favour of cycling fans, and who now fear a return to the circa 2010 era of limited live coverage for reasonable prices and dodgy streams.

(Although it must be noted that for some viewers, especially in the UK, the price doesn’t change much, if it all, if they change from Eurosport to Discovery+. For the moment, anyway.)

> The rise & fall of GCN+ – is the livestream party over for cycling fans?

“This is an absolute disgrace and a disaster for every cycling fan. Terrible decision,” said the fan behind the popular Cycling Out of Context account.

“Terrible. It’s already impossible to get the Eurosport coverage here in Australia without a UK/Euro credit card. The sport is just going to lose people permanently because of this,” added Carlos.

“Feels like cycling is about to go back into the dark ages in terms of coverage. This sucks a whole bunch. Why must broadcasters do this to all sports?” added former cycling journo and Jayco press officer Sadhbh O’Shea.

“We’ll look back and talk about the cycling season of ‘22 and ‘23 like old hippies talk about the summer of love... Cycling nirvana did exist and it was GCN+ and Eurosport Player,” wrote cycling cartoon guy Rich Mitch.

“Big Cycling has fully eaten itself and is now just picking at the bones of what it was.”

> GCN sold back to founder by Warner Brothers Discovery, website to close

Even current pros were getting involved in the debate.

“Let the return to Tiz commence,” said Larry Warbasse, referring to the online streaming site favoured by Americans in the pre-GCN days.

And the answer?

“VPN and watch every race live on either Sporza or RAI,” said Philip Malcolm.

But that means we won’t get to hear Carlton-… Now I think about it…

Thibaut Pinot, Peter Sagan, Nacer Bouhanni, and now Romain Bardet – bit by bit, the famed Class of 1990*, that crop of talent that also includes Michael Matthews and Nairo Quintana, is fading from the spotlight at the top of the sport.

And in an Instagram post this afternoon Bardet, who announced his arrival as one of France’s great grand tour hopes ten years ago when he finished sixth overall at the 2014 Tour de France, has confirmed that this year’s Tour will be his last, and that he’ll retire after next year’s Criterium du Dauphiné to focus instead, like so many retired pros before him in the last few years, on gravel racing.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Team dsm-firmenich PostNL (@dsmfirmpostnl)

“I have really enjoyed my time with the team,” the DSM-firmenich PostNL star, who joined the team in 2021 after eight years with AG2R, said in the message.

“So for me, it was a no-brainer to either continue with them or fully end my career. I am very grateful for the relationship I have with all the team members and for the trust that the management is putting in me.

“I was not really sure if I wanted to continue cycling, but I still feel that I can bring value and keep chasing big results with the team, so I am happy that we are going into another year together to do something a bit special.

“For me, this is the way I dreamed of finishing my career. I hope to still chase some big victories with the team in 2025, especially in the Giro, to try and get the missing stage win there.”

(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

Arguably France’s greatest and most consistent contender for grand tours over the past decade, Bardet finished in the top ten six times and the podium twice at the Tour de France, providing an attacking, panache-laden counterpoint to Chris Froome and Team Sky’s race-sucking control.

He has also won three stages at the Tour, along with the mountains jersey in 2019, and since joining DSM has enjoyed success at the Vuelta (picking up a stage win in 2021) and the Giro d’Italia, with two top tens in Italy (including ninth this year) bookending a sixth at the 2022 Tour.

Bardet has also been a perennial contender in the hilly classics throughout his career and was the best of the rest behind a rampant Tadej Pogačar at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in April.

“I will also keep working with the younger riders in the team and help them develop towards their GC goals,” the 33-year-old said today.

“The Dauphiné will be my final road race, as it is my favourite race on the calendar. It is really mountainous and close to where I live. These are the roads I used to train on a lot, so there couldn’t be a better place to finish my road career.”

* Of course, the greatest cycling superstar born in 1990, Anna van der Breggan, announced yesterday that she is mounting a surprise comeback next season after three years in retirement. So you never know, with Bardet soon out of the picture, can we expect a 2026 Pinot Tour bid?

A candlelight vigil is to be held next Saturday in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, in memory of Mike Gough, a popular local cyclist, volunteer, and road safety campaigner, who was killed in a collision with a van driver in March.

The vigil will take place on 29 June at the Sebastopol Cannon on George Street, near where Mike was killed, offering people the chance to pay their respects to Mike and the memory of all victims of road crashes in Cambridgeshire.

Attendees are invited to gather from 10pm and bring a candle, torch, or bicycle light. Starting at 10.30pm, some speeches will take place and poetry will be read by Mike’s wife Hazel, other members of the family and supporters of Hunts Walking and Cycling group, of which Mike was a founding member.

A mechanic and owner of Roadies Cycles in Hartford, as well as a passionate advocate for safe cycle infrastructure and streets, he shared a post two days before his death that asked: “How many more vulnerable road users will be killed or seriously injured... before we get a safe route between Huntingdon and St Ives?”

The 65-year-old was killed while cycling on Huntingdon’s George Street on 16 March, when a van driver struck him. The driver was arrested on suspicion of causing death by careless driving but released on bail.

Paying tribute to Mike after his death, Nik Johnson, the mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said: “He was a huge advocate for the benefits of cycling, for active travel, for safe spaces on our roads and on our pavements, not just in the local area but across Europe. He inspired me to be interested in cycling and will be sorely, sorely missed.”

“We’ll continue to support those who want to see a safer cycle network in the district in memory of Mike and to ensure that no more families are left suffering after tragic incidents like this,” Camcycle’s Anna Williams also said.

Those attending next Saturday’s vigil are encouraged to walk or cycle if they are able to do so, and Mike’s family have chosen Cycling UK as their charity for anyone who would like to make a donation in Mike’s memory.

Chris Froome won’t be spending his July riding around France, desperately trying not to get dropped on the first climb every day, after Israel-Premier Tech opted to leave the four-time winner out of their Tour squad this morning – more on that in a minute – but at least that means he can continue working on his acting skills, without all that unnecessary bike racing distraction.

Because, after trying his hand at weird, viral ASMR parody videos last year (complete with, gasp, disc brake touching), thespian Froomey has made a comeback this week, as part of the 39-year-old’s latest attempt to flog some all-in-one digital wallet by British tech company Curve.

> “Utter rubbish Froomey, sad times”: Cycling fans baffled as Chris Froome advertises digital wallet on Strava with cringe “Cyclists, we’re minimalists” spiel

Just in case you missed Wednesday’s live blog, the seven-time grand tour winner announced on Strava that he had partnered with Curve, in which he has been a long-time investor apparently, and will front their latest campaign for ‘financial wearables’.

(I think that means you can pay for stuff with your wedding ring – cue some outdated 1970s comedy punchlines – but I’m not entirely sure.)

In any case, to help Luddites like me, the Froome doggy dog has decided to release a new – bizarrely silent – social media advert explaining the whole techy concept.

So, if you ever wanted to see four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome mime that he’s got a puncture, before attempting to buy some vastly overpriced spare tubes from a Reform Party member’s ‘Allo ‘Allo!-inspired fantasy version of a French person (oh look, more old-fashioned comedy)… then, amazingly, you’re in luck:

4 yellow jerseys, 2 Olympic medals, and surely an Oscar is on the cards after this performance, right? 🤣 https://t.co/jJNZJGSbNX pic.twitter.com/1u83oCVmRb

— Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) June 20, 2024

And while some social media viewers urged Froome to not give up his day job – which, ironically, seems to be the opposite of the message he’s currently receiving from Israel-Premier Tech (what? Too soon?), others were effusive about the future prospects of Chris Froome The Actor and Part-Time Pro Cyclist.

“Academy Award for best Short Film and best male actor,” one fan, who presumably still thinks Froome has a chance of that last Tour stage win, wrote on X.

“A career in Coronation Street awaits!” said another.

“It’s like watching a young Brando,” added Martin, who must have a copy of that deleted scene where the Godfather used a ring to pay for a tube on a mountain near Monaco (although, now I say it…).

Meanwhile, wooks81 added that it was “nice to see Wiggins in the advert”:

You know what, he’s not far away…

“Four yellow jerseys, two Olympic medals, and surely an Oscar is on the cards after this performance, right?” Froome himself asked when posting the video.

However, after all that, it was left to Trevor Ward to speak for all of us with his take on Froomey’s latest non-cycling venture:

“And I still have no idea what it is you’re advertising.”

A drink driver with half a dozen empty beer cans in his vehicle who rammed into the back of two cyclists, before using his SUV to run over one of the cyclists as they lay on the ground following the shocking collision, has been arrested and charged in Texas, as cyclists have labelled the incident “attempted murder”.

Read more: > Drunk driver with six empty beer cans in SUV rams two cyclists, before driving over stricken rider, in shocking hit-and-run in Texas

Now, this is the kind of Friday cycling content we want to see:

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Ohad Damirov (@ohadamirov)

I’ll have to ask him what beers he has on eTap…

I’ll get my coat.

Another British GC contender who won’t be lining up in Florence for the start of the Tour de France next weekend is Tao Geoghegan Hart, after Lidl-Trek confirmed this morning that the former Giro d’Italia winner will miss out on his first opportunity to lead the team at a grand tour after fracturing his rib and contracting Covid.

The 29-year-old Londoner, who joined Lidl-Trek from Ineos at the start of this year, has spent much of 2024 building back his form after his horrific femur-breaking crash at last year’s Giro, finishing ninth overall at the Tour de Romandie and securing some good placings at the Critérium du Dauphiné.

However, Geoghegan Hart – who was set to lead Lidl-Trek’s GC tilt at the Tour – was caught in the mass crash that marred stage five of the Dauphiné, suffering a fractured rib.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Tao Geoghegan Hart (@taogeogheganhart)

After returning home to Andorra, the British rider then confirmed on Instagram that he had contracted Covid and was “super sick”, missing five days of training in the process, adding to the litany of bad luck that has plagued him in recent years and prompting Lidl-Trek’s announcement this morning that he will miss the Tour.

“News we wish we didn’t have to share. Unfortunately Tao Geoghegan Hart will miss this year’s Tour de France,” Lidl-Trek said in a statement.

“The Brit has been sidelined for longer than initially expected after the Critérium du Dauphiné due to illness and injuries sustained, including a fractured rib, in the crash on Stage 5.

“Wishing Tao all the best for a good recovery. The Team can’t wait to see him back racing at 100 per cent as soon as he is ready.”

As someone who oscillated last night between bewilderment, exasperation, and open amusement (hey, they aren’t my team, before you get all huffy in the comments), while watching that shambolic England display against Denmark at the Euros yesterday evening, I couldn’t help but chuckle at this spot of cycling-themed tactical analysis:

Gareth Southgate wears a helmet on his peloton.

— Rob M (@Im_RobM) June 20, 2024

I can’t wait for the first ‘Froome has more chance of winning the Tour this year than England do the Euros’ post… Okay, I really will stop now!

Although, after they all enjoyed a leisurely spin on some e-mountain bikes earlier this week, maybe Southgate needs to send his squad down some proper gnarly downhill trails before the Slovenia game.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by England football team (@england)

That’ll get rid of all that caution…