Depending on where you’re tuning in from, Eurosport, TNT Sports or Discovery+ usually rule the airwaves when it comes to cycling, boasting almost non-stop coverage from February to September in exchange for a subscription fee.
Those streaming platforms however, are not the only ways to watch pro cycling. Broadcasters in France, Australia and Belgium, for example, air the Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix at no extra cost or subscription.
So, 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 2026. Between them, the UCI calendar is almost fully covered, including all three Grand Tours and five Monuments.
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, Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, 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 lower-level French races and its national championships.
The 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.
Eurosport covers everything else, but France’s free-to-air selection spans almost the entirety of the WorldTour calendar.
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 on its free-to-air channels. 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 (men’s and women’s)
- 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.
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.
Spain
As a Grand Tour host nation, Spain doesn’t disappoint in its free-to-air offering. National broadcaster RTVE broadcasts the Tour de France and Vuelta a España on both TV sets and on its streaming service RTVE Play. This also includes extensive coverage of the Tour de France Femmes and Vuelta Femenina.
For 2026, the live coverage of the following races have already been confirmed by RTVE.
- Tour de France, Tour de France Femmes, Vuelta a España, Vuelta Femenina
- Paris-Nice, Volta a Catalunya, Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Paris-Roubaix
As for free Basque-language coverage, EiTB broadcasts the Vuelta a España along with Itzulia Basque Country (both men’s and women’s). The Basque commentary can be found on its streaming service EiTB On.
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.
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, Middle Eastern races and a rogue selection of European stage races during the year. 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, Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Volta a Catalunya, AlUla Tour, Tour of Turkey, Czech Tour and Cro Race
SBS On Demand also offer a range of cycling documentaries and podcasts. They’ve still got Phil Liggett in the commentary booth too.
Ireland
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 2026, hosted by the commentary duo of Páidí Ó Lionáird and Pádraic Ó Cuinn. Spared from the TNT Sports deal, TG4 will continue to broadcast the Tours as a minority language for the years to come.
TG4’s website and player is accessible without the need to make an account, and it is streamed both online and on terrestrial TVs in both the Republic and Northern Ireland.
For English-language coverage, Irish viewers will have to subscribe to TNT Sports, so you’d better brush up on your Leaving Cert Irish.
United Kingdom
2025 was the final year of free-to-air cycling coverage on the British channel ITV. No other station has stepped up to fill that position, and TNT Sports has bought the exclusive rights to show the Tour until 2030. In that case, it’ll be slim pickings for free cycling coverage in the UK this year.
It’s likely that the Tour of Britain, both men’s and women’s, will be broadcast on free-to-air channels. Details of this are unconfirmed at this point, but BBC and ITV stepped up in 2025 to keep these home races on the airwaves. The men’s and women’s elite events at the UCI Road World Championships are also expected to be broadcast on the BBC later in the year, although this has not been confirmed.
Though it’s not live, 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 continue to be aired on the channel. Highlights from that show are posted onto Quest’s YouTube channel, but racing clips will remain on the TNT Sports Cycling channel.
