The Tour de France will cross the starting line this Friday, July 1 from Copenhagen, Denmark and will pedal through three countries on its way to Paris, where the peloton will roll down the Champs-Élysées to the finish line on Saturday, July 24. Catch all the action on USA Network and the Peacock app. Stages 2, 20, and 21 will also be televised on NBC. Here’s a rundown of the daily schedule. DIRECTV STREAM subscribers can watch on USA Network and NBC, and subscribers with our exclusive stream device can access the Peacock app through the device.

The 2022 Tour de France will cycle through Denmark, Belgium, and Switzerland before settling down in France and winding its way to the City of Light.

 

The Route

The 109th edition of the Tour de France will begin in Copenhagen and cycle through Denmark, Belgium, and Switzerland before settling down in France and winding its way to the City of Light. Along the way the riders will travel 2068 miles across 23 days and face the fearsome and famous Alpe d’Huez climb among several other challenging mountain ascents in the Pyrenees.

 

 

 

The Field

Every Tour de France boasts a basketful of general classification (GC) contenders, sprinters, and climbers all jostling for jerseys, points, and the podium. The 2022 edition will be no different. The Tour de France standings always focus on three classifications: the general classification (overall leader), the points classification (best sprinters), and the mountains classification (best climbers). The GC is most important and most coveted, but all three are highly respected titles among the peloton. 

 

GC Contenders

Twenty-three-year old Slovenian Tadej Pogačar is the natural favorite for this year’s maillot jaune (yellow jersey), given to the overall winner of the Tour de France. The UAE Team Emirates rider has won the last two editions of the Tour and is vying for a third. A masterful climber and speedy against the clock, Pogačar has won three stage-races this season already, and arrives at the Tour in top form. Teammate Rafal Majka just won two stages at the Tour of Slovenia, a race won by Pogačar, and is part of Team Emirates outstanding squad.

Team Jumbo-Visma boasts two GC contenders. Pogačar’s countryman Primož Roglič has already won Paris-Nice and the Criterium du Dauphine this year, to go with three previous victories at the prestigious Vuelta a España, the third of the three Grand Tours, along with the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia. Jumbo-Visma also includes Jonas Vingegaard, the 25-year Dane who finished second in last year’s Tour. He also finished second to teammate Roglič at the Dauphine earlier this season.

If Team Emirates and Jumbo-Visma are the favorites with the top contenders, Team Ineos Grenadiers feature three more potential winners. Geraint Thomas won the Tour in 2018. Previous white jersey winner Adam Yates and Colombian Dani Martínez round out the Grenadiers big three. Thomas and Martínez both have wins this season.

Bora-Hansgrohe features two riders who are GC threats. Russian rider Aleksandr Vlasov has won twice this year, at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and Tour de Romandie. Teammate Jai Hindley won the Giro d’Italia earlier this season to become the first Australian to win that Grand Tour.

Young Slovenian superstar Tadej Pogačar has won the last two editions of the Tour and is vying for a third.

 

The Green Jersey

This year’s maillot vert is up for grabs. The green jersey is awarded to the winner of the points classification which acknowledges the race’s best sprinter. Legendary British speed merchant Mark Cavendish, last year’s green jersey winner and winner of 34 stages at the Tour, was not chosen to represent Team Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl at this year’s Tour. But the Netherlands’ Fabio Jakobsen, also of Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, already has 10 stage wins this year and is poised to win his first stage at the Tour. Wout van Aert, another Jumbo-Visma rider, has to be considered a threat given his two recent stage wins and the points classification at the Dauphine. Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Fenix, Caleb Ewan of Lotto-Soudal, and the venerable seven-time Tour de France points winner Peter Sagan of TotalEnergies, round out the speedsters shortlist.

 

The Polka Dot Jersey

The polka dot jersey competition is awarded to the rider that wins the most points in the mountains. GC favorite Pogačar has won the last two maillot a pois rouges at the Tour. Frenchman Romain Bardet of UCI WorldTeam DSM recently conquered the Tour of the Alps and won the mountains classification at the 2019 Tour. His countryman Thibaut Pinot is another top threat on the steep climbs.

Catch this year’s Tour de France on USA Network, NBC, and the Peacock app. Stages 2, 20, and 21 will be televised on NBC, the rest on USA and Peacock. Here’s a rundown of the daily schedule. 

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