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The ITV Tour de France commentary team fear the loss of free-to-air coverage of the race will have a “devastating effect” on the sport of cycling in the UK.

Last Friday, it was announced that Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of Eurosport, had signed an exclusive deal with ASO, the organisers of the Tour de France, to show the race in the UK.

“Let’s be honest, it’s struggling at the moment, on all levels, and to have the Tour de France taken away from free-to-air means that the descending spiral that we appear to be in in the UK with regards road cycling is going to continue. It sucks for the kids like me who fell in love with this quirky sport, and they could just go and turn on a TV and watch it on their own. They didn’t need their parents to get a subscription.”

“I think the fact of it not being free-to-watch anymore is going to have a devastating effect on the sport in the UK. You might not see it in a year’s time, two years’ time, but going forward, five years, 10 years, I think it will have a huge, huge impact. Even me going on the school run, you have parents who you had no idea watch the Tour or are into cycling, talk about, ‘What a stage that was’ or, ‘Did you see his attack or that crash?’. It’s really, really sad.

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‘It’s going to damage cycling in the UK’ – Ned Boulting, David Millar and Pete Kennaugh react to ITV losing Tour de France rights

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