Skip to content

Craven's Bike Site

Chapeau ITV

10m Reading time, 1809 words.

Chapeau ITV, Chapeau Le Tour de France.

I'm writing this while watching the final 45 minutes of the Tour de France on free to air UK coverage with the best team ever to do it. I'm not sure how I'm going to write this, because I've said so much over the past 3 weeks about it to various people.

It's not about the cyclists, we'll keep watching (well, I might not watch as much, because I'm pretty sure it's the people behind the ITV coverage that bring be to the Tour so much every year) but will my Nana. In the 2nd rest day coverage Phil told Paul "it's about keeping the old lady from putting the kettle on before the break" and on Friday, in the pouring rain, Ned and David managed to keep my Nana from doing exactly that. A lady that has no interest in cycling beyond that her grandchild loves the sport.

It's about the kid that's in the same position I was 20 years ago, experiencing the Tour for the first time, and getting to see it with ALL the bells and whistles, not just detailed facts. It's about the highlights packages. They show more than just the race. There's what? 3 minutes of talk about what happened in the stage, and what might happen on the next day at the end of the highlights package? But instead, Ned, David, Gary, Matt, Frebe, and everyone else will guide you through. They guide you with the live coverage, but don't just show that. Other highlights show 50 minutes of live footage (often just the final 50 minutes, leaving out everything else that happens before) and show nothing of the rest of France.

I'll miss Gary's silly intros and amazing jokes. I'll miss Matt telling me about the history of France and little details that are more than just a bike race. I'll miss Ned and David doing the #TuneDeFrance and their pinboard. Those are the things that are important. This isn't just a bike race, this is an experience like no other, and we'll lose that.

I'm not upset it's off free to air, I'm upset we're losing the highest quality highlights package possible, where everyone cares and shows you the beauty of cycling. Of course losing free to air sucks, and never having it properly for the Femmes sucks (#WatchTheFemmes doesn't work if I can't even find a fucking highlights package that's more than the final 10 minutes of the stage)

I'll miss you all, and I'll miss the theme tune, and I'll miss the banter, and I'll miss the fantastic history, and I'll miss the scenery, and I'll miss the stats, and I'll miss the great reporting, and I'll miss the behind the scenes. Shit, I'll even miss the adverts...

I'm sure there was so much more to say, but there's so much you do how could I possibly remember it all?

Hey, as I write this part my alarm that uses the theme tune went off to remind me to put the TV on for the highlights (it's the final day, we're still live for the podiums)

I don't know what will happen next year, or where I'll watch the Tour, or maybe if I will (I don't care about road cycling outside of the spring classics and the Tour) but I hope it's something I can still find love in. Next year will certainly tell, is the Tour a special race, or is this coverage team a special thing?

The bike racing was great, but you made it watchable by all.

I don't think I'm going to talk about the actual bike race, because at the end of this 20 something year journey I've been on, you've showed me it's not the racing that matters, that's just an excuse to be here.

Gary asks the best questions, and you always find the best people for him to ask questions of. He asks questions for everyone, for the people who've watched more coverage of the Tour de France than you've broadcast, and for the people who tune in for 45 minutes. He's been fantastic for longer than I've been alive, and I've even loved going back in history to highlights DVDs from the 90s and early 2000s to see what he has to say.

It's such a good team, and I wish I could thank them all, because I know for sure it's not just the people we see but the ones behind the cameras that make this too. You're the only highlights package that'd run a song from a niche alty band (Fontaines DC, Favourite, I think it was stage 10? It's been a while). Most places don't care about the highlights.

Also, thank you on that note for not spoiling the pissing result ever, on YouTube or other posts. Every time I would come home from work and have to try and avoid YouTube somehow for a month until I could get a proper highlights package from you. Thank you for that. It shouldn't be a fucking problem, but it is.

I hope that much like RedBull have done, you can find something else. This part isn't about ITV, but about the people behind it. I hope you can find races to cover and to keep us entertained. They'll never replace the Tour de France (unlike RedBull are starting to do with Hardline vs World Cups) but they'll fill a hole in my heart every July.

I'm watching now, and Gary is asking about radios between riders and other riders, or riders back to the car. That simply isn't asked or talked about by other shows, at least not in a highlights package or desk show. Maybe Kelly will be asked by Kirby but not for the short bits most people will see.

This is completely rambling, and I've gone back to this multiple times now as you might be able to tell, but I'm really gonna miss the extra history parts. They're so interesting, they're so fantastic, they're amazing, I just can't tell anything more. It covered the race, which includes so much outside of the bikes. Mini documentaries, going back 30 years, Gary effectively doing the 15 minute YouTube mini doc a decade before YouTube is invented. Tom Scott eat your heart out.

I wasn't really all there with following cycling when Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen were replaced by mostly Ned Boulting and David Millar, and though they'll always be the voices of cycling, Ned and David are a fantastic duo.

David Millar is probably my favourite cyclist. A man who wore the first yellow jersey of my life, who is a great time trialist (my favourite discapline of cycling that doesn't involve nobby tyres), and who rebuilt my trust in a sport when the whole of my heroes from my formative years were being outed for doping one after another. He did the correct thing after doing the wrong thing, and he's a great voice for this sport.

Matt Rendall is a divisive guy, but he's someone I absolutely love. This coverage is the only one that will even consider allowing someone to talk about the climate impact of the Tour de France, and to talk about sportswashing (something very important to me, as certain countries where I'm banned from sponsor the biggest riders in the race. How do I support a rider who's the best in the world, and races amazingly, but rides for a team sponsored by a govornment that doesn't want me to exist?).

Daniel Friebe is great, I want to mention him because he's a core team member and has been for the whole time I've been watching, but right now I can't think of anything super specific. His questions are good, but I think I like his other reports best. He knows where to find information, and you can tell the riders like him and want to share as much as they can, sometimes even if they shouldn't.

And of course, I want to thank everyone behind the scenes. So many people who I don't know the names of, but edit and make this show amazing. The music, the stories, the researchers, the filmers, the camerapeople, the script writers, and especially the people who I can't name here because they do things you just don't see.

This story comes to an end, but hopefully it's just the end of this road, and we'll go down another (maybe more gravel covered) road.

Here's some poems I thought were really nice via the Never Strays Far podcast written by Jim Bridgeman.

Stop all the clocks, whittle down the GC lead, prevent Ned from commentating via break in feed. Silence the theme tune, with the muffled drum. Bring out the final highlights, let the broom wagon come. Let helicopters circling the chasing pack shout out their lament, ak ak ak ak ak. As French farmers use tractors to spell out their love, let the Malliot Jaune wear non regulation black cycling gloves. It was my north, my south, my highs and lows. The hard first week, and the two rest day shows. The sprints, the climbs, the time trials, short and long. I thought ITVs coverage would last forever, I was wrong. Their stars are not wanted now, though they set a high bar. Pack away Ned, David, Pete. Though they'll Never Stray Far. Friebos and Rendall all fade to black, and nothing will compare with Gary Imlach.

For three weeks each July as the riders flick by, through the department of France, I've sat there entranced and felt so part of it all. I'm not part of the peloton, neither ate a gel, nor swigged a bidon. Never worn and aero helmet or cleats, nor stuffed newspaper to preserve heat, yet I've felt a part of it all. From the HTC Highroad sprint trains, to cobbled hell in the rain when Team Sky was the limit, to the certainty that Pog would win it, I've felt a part of it all. So when Ned and David finally go quiet, I'm tempted to riot, demanding the return of Pete's fashion styles, and Friebos smiles, Rendalls questions and quarms, and Gary Imlachs open arms. For what joy can we share, when the Tour's not free to air.

Now I'm watching the outro to the final ever live show, and no other company would do a joke with Armstrong saying "I can emphatically say I'm not on drugs". Most of them refuse to talk about those times. You talk about them, because you understand history, and you taught me history.

I'm gonna go have a good cry now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

The story is finally complete - Ned Boulting.

Chapeau Le Tour de France, Chapeau ITV4. Thank you.