While Eurosport rules the cycling airwaves across Europe, boasting cycling on its schedule almost non-stop from February to September, there are plenty of ways to watch top-level pro cycling free of charge. Broadcasters in France, Australia and Belgium, for example, air the Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix at no extra cost or subscription.
If you’re on a tighter budget, we’ve got you covered. We’ve dug through the TV schedules to work out which countries still have free-to-watch cycling in 2025. Between them, the UCI calendar is almost fully covered, including all three Grand Tours.
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France
There are three options to watch racing in France: Eurosport, France Télévisions and L’Équipe. The three broadcasters offer different slices of the calendar, but only France TV and L’Équipe are free-to-air. The cycling schedules for the two channels can be found here.
France TV provides free-to-air coverage of leading ASO races and Monuments. This includes the Tour de France, Critérium du Dauphiné, La Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Paris-Nice and the Amstel Gold Race. On top of that selection, the channel also broadcasts smaller-level French races and national championships.
The channel’s commentary team is anchored by Tour de France Femmes director Marion Rousse and former green jersey winner Laurent Jalabert as well as Thomas Voeckler, who reports live from the back of a motorbike during the Tour. The channel’s Tour de France coverage also includes the Vélo Club talk show before and after the stage.
For races not covered by France Télévisions, L’Équipe’s coverage is available on its website. It mostly broadcasts French races, focussing on the Coupe de France circuit as well as the Giro d’Italia, which is not covered by France Télévisions.
- Access France Télévisions
- Access L’Équipe’s TV channel
Italy
Like in most of Europe, Eurosport offers the most extensive cycling coverage in Italy. That said, Italy's main public service broadcaster Rai offers a broad selection of men's and women's races. Notably, this includes the Giro and Tour alongside the Monuments and a hefty smorgasbord of both one-day and stage races. The following races will be shown on Rai:
- Tour de France and Giro d'Italia
- Milano-Sanremo, Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Il Lombardia
- Strade Bianche, Amstel Gold, Hamburg Cyclassics and Flèche Wallonne
- Milano-Torino, Gran Piemonte, Giro dell'Emilia (plus more Italian one-day races)
- Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, Itzulia Basque Country and Critérium du Dauphiné
- Tour of the Alps and Giro d'Abruzzo
- Italian Championships, World Championships and European Championships
To access Rai's cycling content, you need to make an account for the RaiPlay service. Rai's radio commentary of the Giro is also available to listen to even if you're not in Italy.
- Access RaiPlay
Belgium
Belgium has the largest spread of free-to-air coverage in Europe, rivalling Eurosport's packed cycling schedule. With Belgium being bilingual, there's almost double the content to enjoy.
Flemish state broadcaster VRT's sports channel Sporza provides heaps of free-to-air coverage for its audience. With an account to VRT Max, the broadcaster's streaming service, you can also access documentaries and Sporza's fantasy cycling game.
Sporza broadcasts close to every UCI WorldTour race on its platform, including coverage of the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España as well as a packed cyclocross schedule in the winter. Plus, if you tune into Sporza's coverage, you get to listen to the hallowed commentary duo of José De Cauwer and Michel Wuyts, who have long graced the Flemish airwaves.
If the Flemish language isn't to your taste, then you can access RTBF's free-to-air coverage of cycling in French for the Wallonian audience in Belgium. By making an account for RTBF Auvio, you can access an extensive cycling calendar that includes 100 races in total, including all three Grand Tours and Monuments.
- Access Sporza on VRT Max
- Access RTBF Auvio
The Netherlands
NOS is the Dutch free-to-air broadcaster that handles pro cycling. The channel, also available to view online, offers a fairly stacked set of cycling broadcasts, including four Monuments and two Grand Tours.
Following a new deal secured between ASO, the EBU and NOS, the channel will broadcast all major ASO races until 2030. This includes rights to Paris-Roubaix, the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes.
Alongside this chunk of the UCI calendar, major Flemish one-day races and the UCI World Championships will be available to watch on NOS and its streaming service NOS Start. The streaming service is free to sign up to, just as long as you're over the age of 16.
- Access NOS
Australia
Australia has the widest selection of English-language free-to-air content and the SBS On Demand online platform can be joined at no cost.
SBS has the rights to show major ASO races, including coverage of the Tour de France, Tour de France Femmes and other key pre-Tour races in France. Outside of this European WorldTour coverage, SBS broadcasts the Australian block in January, the Tour of Oman and Tour de la Provence during the winter. It also has free-to-air coverage of the domestic ProVelo SuperLeague.
Expect to see the following races via SBS this year:
- Tour de France (and Femmes) and Vuelta a España (and Femenina)
- Strade Bianche, Gent Wevelgem, Paris-Roubaix, Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Eschborn-Frankfurt and Paris-Tours
- Paris-Nice, Volta a Catalunya, Tour of Turkey, Critérium du Dauphiné and Cro Race
SBS On Demand also hosts a series of cycling podcasts and documentaries. These include a half-hour look into Grace Brown's illustrious career and a deep dive into the life of cycling commentator Phil Liggett. Speaking of, Liggett often appears in the commentary booth for the Austalian coverage.
- Access SBS On Demand
United Kingdom
Free-to-air coverage of bike races is winding down in the UK.
The men's Tour de France will be broadcast live on ITV4 and online on ITVX, with highlights also aired each evening of the men's race at 8pm. However 2025 will be the final year of free-to-air live coverage of WorldTour level cycling on ITV. No other channel has stepped up to fill that position and TNT Sports has bought the exclusive rights to show the Tour until 2030.
As of March 2025, freeview channel Quest will broadcast race highlights from the Grand Tours. In addition, 'The Ultimate Cycling Show', hosted by Orla Chennaoui and Adam Blythe, will begin airing at the end of February and will discuss the week's news in pro cycling.
- Access ITVX
Ireland
Ireland is another victim of the recent Eurosport closure, forcing cycling to merge into TNT Sports' premium subscription.
Ireland's only free-to-air cycling coverage is available in the Irish language via TG4. The Galway-based channel will broadcast the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes in 2025, hosted by the commentary duo of Páidí Ó Lionáird and Pádraic Ó Cuinn. However, 2025 will be the final year TG4 is permitted to broadcast the women's race given WBD's exclusivity deal, which will come into effect in 2026.
Regardless, TG4 is accessible without the need to make an account. Its Tour de France coverage available across the island of Ireland, so viewers in Northern Ireland can tune in online or on TV.
If you're hoping to access free-to-air coverage in English, Irish viewers are unable to access British content through ITVX. The free streaming platform is not available in Ireland or Northern Ireland. There are no plans to broadcast the Tour de France on UTV in Northern Ireland either.
- Access TG4
