There are really only two good options for following this year’s Tour de France on your iPad or iPhone, and neither of them have had their performance enhanced by drugs (we think).
The big feature of the NBC Sports Tour de France Live app is, as you might guess from the app title, its live feed. Fans can watch each stage live, complete with commentary, and then go back and play clips of the stage highlights. The live feed is properly supplemented with a wealth of race info, like stage profiles, current standings, rider stats and team rosters. There’s also a real-time tracking map.
This year I’m watching the Tour on a big screen, but I live-streamed the Tour via the Versus app a few years ago and it worked pretty well. The app is half the $30 price for NBC’s web-based stream to desktops and laptops; the app is also considerably more mobile.
The NBC Tour de France Live app is only for the U.S. — but check your app store for apps carrying a live stream in other countries.
If you don’t need a live stream, you’ll want the free CyclingNews Tour Tracker app. It’s the perfect fan companion, and it has pretty much everything the NBC app has, minus the live stream, the live stream and the price. It even tracks riders on the map via realtime live GPS, just like the NBC app. And you won’t want to delete it come August, as the app carries the same data smorgasbord for other major stage races like the Giro and the Vuelta.
