An hour before The Breakaway goes live, the production crew forms a human shield across a noisy central London street so presenter Orla Chennaoui can record her opening link uninterrupted.The Breakaway is TNT Sports’ live analysis show around each stage of the Tour de France and it has been taken out of the studio and in front of live audiences, swapping the Stockley Park studio in west London for a venue that is part café, part cycling shop, part clubhouse.It feels less like the middle of London than a café encountered somewhere along the Tour route. It is a fitting image as cyclists stream past, the team is preparing to bring the show out of its usual studio and into cycling brand Rapha’s Soho clubhouse for a live edition during the Tour.Scott Young, group senior vice president of content, production and business operations for Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, describes the Tour as “the biggest travelling circus of any sport in broadcasting”.Orla Chennaoui speaking to The Athletic before presenting duties (Amelie Claydon/The Athletic)The show’s regular on-air team, presenter Chennaoui, 47, and former professional riders Adam Blythe and Matt Stephens, have to speak to two very different audiences.“One is our traditional, hardcore cycling fan who is there for all the coverage,” Young says. “The other is an audience that isn’t really too sure what’s going on, but they love the spectacle of the Tour.”For Young, bringing The Breakaway into Rapha’s clubhouse is part of an attempt to reach both groups more directly.“The idea is: how do we leave the confines of our studio and connect with cycling fans?” he says.At the centre of that task is Chennaoui, the presenter and the person responsible for steering the discussion between Blythe and Stephens. A journalist by trade rather than a former cyclist, she is covering her 17th Tour but remains careful not to position herself as the panel’s authority on racing.“I’m not supposed to be the expert,” she says. “I’m supposed to be guiding the conversation. A big part of my job is making sure people at home leave the show with a better understanding of the bike race than they would have had without it.”Blythe approaches the problem from the opposite direction. The 35-year-old won the British road race title in 2016 and competed at both the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana before he transitioned into broadcasting after his retirement in 2019.“You have to explain it to the person who is watching cycling for the first time, but also appeal to the person who sees themselves as a professional,” he says.“It’s like a game of chess. You’re trying to explain the story to the viewer, get them attached and help them understand why something is happening.”Instead of speaking into a mostly empty studio, the presenters are surrounded by around 50 people who ride, watch and argue about cycling themselves.“In the studio, it’s great, but there are about seven people in the room at a time,” Blythe says. “When you’ve got an audience and get a bit more reaction, it’s nice to have people more involved.”Before the programme begins, Chennaoui encourages the crowd to be as vocal as they like. She asks for cheers to gauge which riders they believe can challenge for the yellow jersey, with Tim Wellens, the 35-year old Belgian national cycling champion, emerging as a clear favourite.