If OLN's Road to the Tour shows are any indication of the quality of its upcoming Tour coverage, I think I'm going to rely more on online content than in years past. I'm familiar with cyclingnews.com and VN's live coverage, but who else is out therewith live coverage? Daily Peloton? Pez? What is the "feel" of these other services, and how do they compare to those of cyclingnews/Velonews?

Things I'm interested in:
1.) English Language
2.) Free
3.) Timely updates, especially during decisive selections/last 10 k's.

Any faves out there? Any dogs?

Thanks in advance.

I have been reading daily peloton (www.dailypeloton.com) TDF coverage for the last 2 years and Giro Coverage this year. The people who write for the site are always insightful and on point with their coverage and usually very funny to boot. Some of the other sites just give you the basic information, but this site give you information about why things are happening (like why one break is allowed to succeed and others are reeled in) and how they will affect the outcome of the race. In 2003 they did a great job of covering the situation on Luz Ardiden when LA and Mayo crashed and Tyler held up the other leaders...very chaotic situation, but they kept me informed.

I don't think that Daily Peloton is "real time" though, but it works well if you won't be watching you get a chance to check out OLN or tivo. Because of the time difference, there is usually final coverage by 10-11am EST.

cyclingnews.com

I've used VeloNews for several years now.

My routine, seeing as I am at work and all, is to go to this site at lunch-time (EST), go straight to that day's stage, click on the minute-by-minute feed (without looking at the results), go right to the beginning and read the whole account over lunch..

Toughest part is getting to this section of the site wihout seeing who won that day's stage (I like he suspense) :D

If OLN's Road to the Tour shows are any indication of the quality of its upcoming Tour coverage, I think I'm going to rely more on online content than in years past. I'm familiar with cyclingnews.com and VN's live coverage, but who else is out therewith live coverage? Daily Peloton? Pez? What is the "feel" of these other services, and how do they compare to those of cyclingnews/Velonews?

Things I'm interested in:
1.) English Language
2.) Free
3.) Timely updates, especially during decisive selections/last 10 k's.

Any faves out there? Any dogs?

Thanks in advance.

I used both cyclingnews and VN during the Giro. Personal observation was that the VN site was prone to overloading and would sometime become unavailable (especially troubling as the field enters the last kilometer). CN held up much better under pressure.

As for OLN, I wish they would spend some of the money spent to bring us the TdF 16+ hours a day on covering the myriad of other races that throughout the season. They should be embarrased at some of their "Cyclism Sunday" coverage.

I'm thinking that if there is a decent quality live video stream out there (in any language), I would rather watch that than all the commercials on OLN. After watching the Giro on live stream and experiencing much more continuity due to the lack of interruptions, I'm not sure I want to endure the commercials any more. Does the official Tour site have a live stream?

The official TDF site is good. While the audio feed is from OLN, the race position maps, gaps, weather, and other features make it worthwile.