Help -- how to watch the Tour w/o Versus!

[emily_in_nc]

Okay Tour viewers/addicts, DH and I have been watching daily/nightly on Versus, but we just found out we need to go to Ohio to help the in-laws with a yard sale (we have a lot of stuff to sell too, so it's in our best interests) July 22-26 (including drive time), which will be some of the most exciting days of the Tour. They do not get Versus, just basic cable. They do have DSL, so we could watch a feed on their computer, but we won't be able to watch it live or even close to live since we'll be either driving, preparing for the sale, or conducting the sale during the days. So, we'd be limited to watching at night.

We're trying to figure out if there is a way to get feeds that we could watch not-live in the evening without getting spoilers (i.e., going to most cycling-related sites, it's going to be very hard not to see who won before we watch!) Is there any such thing? We would be willing to pay for a subscription so this does not even have to be a free site.

Our other alternatives are staying in a hotel that we would verify gets Versus before making reservations, or paying to upgrade the in-laws from basic cable. Can you get upgraded cable for a very short time, like a month, or do you have to commit to a full year? We are on satellite so are not familiar with how cable works these days. I believe they are with Time-Warner.

Thanks so much for any advice. Gotta have our tour!!!!!!!

[roguedog]

Hey emily,

I feel ya. I don't have cable but I've been following via veetle.com which has been great.

IF for some reason that doesn't work for ya, try http://www.steephill.tv/tour-de-france/#live which will list a couple of sites to get it in the US. One of the links go to Versus so I've been going to the other links.

But really veetle has been the most reliable and the one that shows up the best for me.

[Triskeliongirl]

The steephill feeds are not so reliable and won't have good commentary.

What we have done when traveling is plan to watch it either at a local sports bar, or even some LBS show it. Just call ahead to try and figure it out.

[tulip]

The steephill feeds do tend to drop out from time to time. The commentary, however, is great. Eurosport UK is very good. If that one drops out, there are others, but it does help if you understand another language.

I agree with the sports bar idea, however, since you won't be able to watch it live.

[Mr. Bloom]

SilverSon has been watching live stream on www.versus.com/tdf

He found it on his own and swears he's (I mean "I'm") not paying for it...

[Possegal]

I think the bigger problem here is that Emily can't watch LIVE anything, as she'll be traveling. She's looking for a way to watch something like the edited versus version at night. Or does anyone store the live stream to watch later on replay, as it were.

I have to say, in all my looking around to find streaming video, I've yet to see any stored video. If you click on the live feeds like versus or steephill after the stage is over, you won't get anything. It would help if there was a way to watch the evening version of Versus online, I have not seen that but it doesn't mean it isn't out there.

I second the idea of a nice sports bar. Reminds me of the year my hockey team won their first Stanley Cup and I was living in Oxford Mississippi and no cable or regular TV stations were showing hockey. I went to a sports bar, explained my predicament and the kind bartender handed me the satellite book and said - find me a station. I gave him the local Pittsburgh sports station and there I sat, all by myself, watching hockey on the one big screen TV, while everyone else watched basketball on all the other TVs.

Good luck, I hope you find a way to watch. I was at my cousins a few years back on the final weekend of the Tour and I did email first to make sure his cable had at least one station I could watch for Tour coverage. So I understand your dilemma.