‘A three-week drama in daily episodes’: curtain to fall on free-to-air Tour de France coverage

Gary Imlach prepares for one final race as La Grande Boucle moves behind a paywall after 40 years on ITV and Channel 4

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hen the last rider rolls across the Tour de France finish line in Paris on 27 July it will mark more than the end of the world’s most prestigious bike race. Once Gary Imlach and team have wrapped up, it will conclude four decades of free-to-air Tour coverage for British TV viewers.

While the sport, and the technology used to broadcast it, have transformed since the 1980s, the excellence of the ITV programme (previously on Channel 4) has been constant.

Just as British and Irish interest in the race has cycled through eras – from Sean Kelly to David Millar, to Chris Boardman and later Mark Cavendish, to Team Sky of Wiggins, Froome and Thomas – the on-air cast has naturally evolved. Nick Owen and Richard Keys first presented the highlights: Owen in ’86, Keys in ’87 and ’88. Phil Liggett, for a time, doubled as presenter and commentator, and Liggett and Paul Sherwen were succeeded by the more cerebral – and no less popular – Ned Boulting and Millar on commentary.