Just pulled up the cycling world tour calendar to start to look forward to the spring classics this year and realised that all the world tour races have gone over to TNT, at a cost of £30.99 a month!
Have been happy stumping up £6.99 over the last number of years but that increase is very sad for the sport in the UK. No free to air Tour de France coverage at all.
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ITV will be able to broadcast this year’s race. From 2026 there won’t be anything available free to air.
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It’s disappointing but at only £1 a day for wall to wall cycling coverage It’s not really that expensive when a Cappuccino costs at least £3.50…
Can’t mention the ‘B’ word but perhaps another ‘benefit’?
Well, it’s the most boring sport on earth.
Martin
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And if you want it, pay for it
Martin
If all you’re interested in on there is the cycling that’s a 443% increase! Just a tad above inflation
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Thanks for your input
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I also find this annoying. In fact, I generally find the bundling of sports across different platforms annoying. I don’t watch much sport, and the sport I do watch usually has wheels involved. On TNT, Sky etc, I could end up paying a significant amount in monthly fees to watch a few hours of wheeled sport whilst paying for a lot of sports coverage that I will never watch. Ball sports have no interest for me; watching paint dry has more entertainment value IMHO, and that is where most of the monthly fee ends up.
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Record on VHS and fast wind it. At least it will look like something is moving then.
Boring is certainly a quality in these times where excitement is the norm.
I can’t wait to see the TdF start and watch beautiful scenery.
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I’m sure 99% of your nation’s population would say the same (or worse?) about your expensive audiophile hobby - who’s right and who’s wrong?
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I’m not a fan but it isn’t the most boring sport on earth. Curling is unambiguously more boring unless you enjoy watching people vigorously sweeping the floor, and Crown Bowls rolls itself somewhat further down the boring aisle than that.
Not sure what the most boring sport that gets TV coverage is though. A new thread beckons.
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Snooker is up there.
Billiards is the worst ever.
I’d vote for motor racing - I’ve never understood the fascination with watching fast cars going round and round a circuit.
Must be great to participate in and there’ll be reasons why some drivers will be top of their game but ‘zoom, zoom, zoom’ doesn’t float by boat much.
Others MMV.
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Virgin media customers pay £18 per month for TNT.
I’m really only interested in the spring classics, so I’ll only be subscribing for 3 months.
The bonus is I can watch premiership football, plus champions league matches. 
You can’t deny the cyclists are phenomenal athletes but I don’t think I could watch it for long on TV, apart for maybe the final stretches and any interesting snippets.
Once went to watch the Tour de France for a ‘stag do’ - great scenery and exercise on the hills/mountains and a fairly unique experience only for certain participants to be caught in doping scandals a year or so later which rather destroyed my appreciation of the sport.
What did they say about golf?
You have cycling in your blood I suspect so it’s reasonable value, but many will not be able to stump up that sort of fee if they only have a casual interest - that can’t be good for kids/youngsters who are into the sport, though maybe they just need to get on their bikes and enjoy themselves.
I know I could do with getting mine out of the garage when it warms up a bit.
I suspect that is because you don’t understand cycle racing.
It’s been described as chess on wheels. The tactics employed by each team to get their riders into the “final selection” (group of riders leading at the end of the race) can quite often be more interesting than the end itself.
Tactics are not that easy to explain or understand.
You’ll have put in the miles.
Watching the Tour of Flanders and Paris Roubaix from start to finish would be a good place to start.
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