Tour de France 2025 LIVE: watch FREE from abroad, route, build-up, updates
Eager to watch the biggest race in cycling? Here is how to watch the 2025 Tour de France live in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia.
The 2025 Tour de France is finally here — which means its time for cycling fans to find the best streams for the prestigious race in Australia, Canada, the U.S. and the U.K..
Tadej Pogacar dominated the 2024 edition, with the Slovenian rider winning by more than six minutes over long-time rival Jonas Vingegaard. The Dane, who won the tour in 2022 and 2023, will be eager to bounce back in 2025, and his preparation this term has been much smoother.
Elsewhere, the sprinters will be targeting the green jersey, with Biniam Girmay, Jasper Philipsen, and Tim Merlier all expected to be strong contenders for the stage 1 lead.
Cycling fans in the U.K. and Australia are in luck — they can catch every stage for free on ITVX and SBS respectively. So stick with us as we bring you live action from Lille in the opening stage of the 2025 Tour de France.
How to watch Tour de France 2025 from abroad
What is the Tour de France?
The Tour de France is the most iconic and prestigious race in cycling, held annually along the winding roads of France.
It features 21 stages of varying types — including flat, hilly, mountainous, and the time trial stages.
Riders compete for four different jerseys, with the most coveted being the Maillot Jaune (Yellow Jersey). This represents the overall leader of the general classification, determined by the rider with the lowest cumulative time across all stages.
Although it may seem like a solo event, the tour is very much a team sport. Each team consists of eight riders, usually built around a designated leader. The rest of the team works strategically to protect and support their leader throughout the race.
You can watch the 2025 Tour de France live on ITVX if you a British viewer.
How can I watch the 2025 Tour de France? Free Streams?
The Tour de France is one of the biggest global sporting events and of course that means a variety of different streams across the world. Below we have listed the streaming details for the U.K., U.S., Canada and Australia:
🇬🇧 In Britain ITVX is the place to go for a FREE Tour de France stream
🇺🇸 In the US you want to head over to Peacock — prices start at $7.99/month
🇦🇺 Australians are also in luck as they can watch FREE on SBS On Demand
🇨🇦 FloBikes is the home of the 2025 Tour de France in Canada
And if you're outside the U.K. or Australia right now and want to tune into your free stream don't forget to use NordVPN.
Who are the favorites for the Yellow Jersey in 2025?
The question on a lot of lips is can Tadej Pogacar win the Maillot Jaune again? The Slovenian sensation has won the 2020, 2021 and 2024 editions but faces a formidable rival in Jonas Vingegaard, the 2022 and 2023 winner.
Vingegaard has had better preparation this term and while he doesn't have the same explosive pace as his counterpart he is a smart racer with a strong team.
The first stage will just be about staying up right for these two with sprinters likely to contest the opening day.
Any other rivals? Remco Evenepoel, Joao Almeida and Primoz Roglic are some other names to keep an eye on.
Tour de France Stage 1 Preview
Stage 1 Start Time: 1:10 p.m. (BST) / 8:10 a.m. (ET)
FREE Streams: ITVX (U.K.) / SBS On Demand (Aus)
Now to the all important stuff. The Grand Départ is a loop that starts and ends in Lille and it should be a day for the sprinters.
The riders will be in the saddle for 184.9 km in a relatively flat loop, with just three category four climbs over the course of the clockwise circuit.
Favorites for today's race will be Biniam Girmay, Tim Merlier, Jasper Philipsen and Arnaud de Lie.
Tour de France 2025 Stage 1 LIVE NOW
Ready to stream the 2025 Tour de France? Well U.K. viewers can now watch the action for FREE on ITVX!
As ever Gary Imlach is hosting and he is joined by Chris Boardman and Peter Kennaugh.
ITVX is the perfect place to watch the Tour de France with English commentary, expert analysis and a history of broadcasting the event since 2001.
Outside the U.K. right now? Use NordVPN to access your ITVX stream.
Stage 1 of the 2025 Tour de France is underway!
And we're off! Head over to ITVX and watch the roll out now before the proper racing gets underway in 20 minutes.
Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel will be looking to avoid danger today while the sprinters including Eritrea's Biniam Girmay are eyeing a stage win and a spot in the yellow jersey for tomorrow.
Racing is underway!
After the 11km slow rollout the riders have finally been released!
Will the wind potentially cause echelons? Will it be a day for the sprinters? Who will look for a breakaway? And can the Yellow Jersey favorites avoid trouble?
Head over to ITVX if you're in the U.K. or SBS in Australia for free streams.
179 KM to go
Five riders have broke away initially and they are Jonas Rutsch, Mathis Le Berre, Bruno Armirail, Benjamin Thomas and Matteo Vercher.
They will be hoping the cross winds split the peloton apart to give them an opportunity to take the stage win.
170km to go | Pogacar 'nervous' for opening weeks
Tadej Pogacar may be one of the best riders cycling has ever seen, but even he is nervous for the opening week of the tour.
"As always, the first week of the Tour is one of the most intense, nervous weeks," the Slovenian said.
"You can quite easily lose the Tour de France in the first 10 days until the first rest day. I don't think my goal should be to aim to gain time for the first week, you just need to take care and not screw it up the whole tour... without any bad luck and some sort of incidents to survive the first week."
You can stream every minute of the race via ITVX to see if Tadej Pogacar can retain his crown.
160km to go
The peloton is starting to get into order now with Jasper Philipsen's Alpecin-Deceuninck team setting the pace.
Philipsen has won nine Tour de France stages since his debut in 2019.
Stream today's stage on ITVX to see if he can make it into double figures.
145km to go
The peloton has settled around two minutes behind the front five riders — right now they have the breakaway under firm control.
144km to go
The breakaway has just arrived at the first categorized climb of the tour. This is a category 4 climb and King of the Mountains points are awarded for the first over the top.
Benjamin Thomas took the points on this occasion — we have two more for the rest of today's stage.
130km to go
Ineos Grenadiers' Filippo Ganna appears to have crashed — he is back on his feet and looking to get a new bike now and thankfully his making his way back to the peloton.
British residents can catch stage 1 action on ITVX for FREE. Traveling to the U.S. or Canada from Blighty, use NordVPN to access your usual stream.
120km to go | Team UAE and Visma battling
The GC teams are really battling to cut this lead at the front of this race. The peloton is now only 1:16 behind the breakaway with the cross winds arriving — will they cause havoc?
Tune into ITVX to find out.
109km to go
That peloton is closing — just 15 seconds now between them and the breakaway. Filippo Ganna is also back!
105km to go
And.... they've been caught. So we are all back together with just over 100km to go. The pace is electric which isn't ideal for the sprinters.
British residents can catch stage 1 action on ITVX for FREE. Those traveling to the U.S. or Canada from the U.K. can use NordVPN to access your usual stream.
97km to go
Now we arrive at the intermediate sprint which is important for the green jersey with points available. Jonathan Milan opens up a sprint early and takes those 20 points with ease from Biniam Girmay and Jasper Philipsen.
78km to go
Crash! Thomas and Vercher open up a sprint for the second category 4 climb and on the cobbles Thomas falls and hits into Vercher and both of them are on the deck.
74km to go
We now have echelons as well, and Simon Yates is 54 seconds off the peloton. Not ideal for Visma—lease a bike.
70km to go
We now have five riders in Simon Yates' group. They will be looking to get back to the peloton which is currently just over 30 seconds ahead.
68km to go
Benjamin Thomas receiving treatment after he crashed just a few minutes ago.
66km to go
Fillipo Ganna has abandoned the race. Despite battling on for more than an hour he has now decided that enough is enough.
50km to go
Now is the perfect chance to join the Tour de France feed before we get to the sprint finish in Lille.
In the U.K. you can access a free stream with ITVX.
Traveling to the U.S. or Canada from Britain? Use NordVPN to access your free streams with ease — you can even get a $50 gift card included right now.
45km to go
The final categorized climb of the day arrives and Jonas Vingegaard of all people takes the KoM point.
The other riders were looking at him almost baffled that he was at the front — Vingegaard gleefully took the points.
33km to go
It is something of a waiting game now with that sprint finish looking likely.
Philipsen, Girmay, Merlier, Milan and De Lie will be preparing themselves.
20km to go — Join ITVX's FREE live stream now
We are approaching the climax of stage 1 and now is the perfect time to join the race.
🇬🇧 In Britain ITVX is the place to go for a FREE Tour de France stream
🇦🇺 Australians are also in luck as they can watch FREE on SBS On Demand
Traveling to the U.S. or Canada from Britain or Australia? Use NordVPN to access your free streams with ease.
16km to go
We now have another echelon. Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar are both in the front group.
14km to go
Girmay and Phillipsen are both in this front group — it will be tough to pull it back for the group behind.
12km to go
Remco Evenepoel is in the group behind — disaster for the Belgian rider who will lose time on his GC rivals if it stays this way.
10km to go
Alpecin-Deceuninck are looking good in their goal to lead out Philipsen.
Don't forget to join ITVX's live stream to watch the conclusion of the race now!
7km to go
Jonathan Milan and Tim Merlier are both in the second group which is 37 seconds behind.
5km to go
The race is heating up, who will take it from this small front group?
4km to go
Ben O'Connor and Kaden Groves down! They won't lost time because of the inside 5km rule but not ideal for Philipsen who would have wanted Groves to lead him out.
1km to go
The lead outs begin to start, can Philipsen or Girmay take it?
Jasper Philipsen takes Stage 1!
The train works and Philipsen will have Yellow on Stage 2! Biniam Girmay came home in 2nd place — that bodes well for the Eritrean's tour hopes.
10 for Philipsen
That is now Philipsen's 10th Tour de France stage — he really is some talent! And that was a brilliant lead out from Groves.
Disaster for Evenepeol
The Belgian rider lost around 40 seconds to his GC rivals there — not a good position to be in after stage 1.
Philipsen Delight!
Missed any of the action? Watch FREE highlights on ITVX.
If you haven't been able to watch Stage 1 then don't worry. Highlights will be available live on ITV4 via ITVX from 11p.m. BST (6 p.m. ET) tonight.
They will then be on demand a short time after that.
