J'adore Le Tour! Viva la Phil et al... etc.

ITV is regularly dismissed for its coverage of sport – but you know what, it was bang on for this year’s Tour de France.

Since the days of my dad trailing us all over to get to his weekend time trial races for the East Anglian Cycling Club, reading his subscription to Cycling Weekly and him taking me through the virtues of sport’s greatest race, I’ve always loved Le Tour.

Even though I lost my way from it in recent years – not helped by some shameful cheating and ropey coverage – I fell in love with it all over again in 2010.

It helped that the race was a cracker.

Mark Cavendish, struggling for form early on, took five stages in seemingly invincible style.

Andy Schleck came good – and then unstuck by the width of a chain ring. The fact Alberto Contador won overall by the exact margin he picked up on the Port de Bales is so delicious an irony, it’s almost poetic… ignoring the slightly bitter taste from the whole episode, of course.

And – the usual annoyance of starting an ad break every time a treacherous descent begins excepted – ITV did it justice.

From the live coverage, highlights and podcasts. Matt Rendell, Ned Boulting and Chris Boardman were opinionated and expressive. No airs and graces – just telling it like it is.

You just don’t get that on other sports – football on television being the prime example.

Gary Imlach, Paul Sherwen and Phil Liggett are Tour legends – I suppose they could ensure the coverage was good no matter what the channel.

But still, viva Le Tour.

posted on 26 July 2010 14:40 byMichael Bailey - Sportsdesk

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