Early mornings in July are meant for watching the tour, with all its punishing climbs, furious sprints, zany breakaways and peloton drama. If you don't have a fancy cable TV package, or reliable internet, or you're simply a social creature who would enjoy watching the 21-stage race with fellow enthusiasts, head down to Crow's Feet Commons in downtown Bend. The bike/ski/cafe/brew pub is opening early and showing the tour at 6 AM EVERY MORNING!
We recommend watching daily, starting at 6 am (check cyclingfans.com and steephill.tv for semi-reliable live tour feeds) to fully engage in the drama. But casual fans won't want to miss these stages (check VeloNews for a helpful info graphic showing basic info about each stage):
Stage 1, July 29: The first stage is for the sprinters—in Corsica!
Stage 2, July 30: The race gets into the low hills early on the second day of the tour. Breakaway?
Stage 8, July 6: First big mountain stage and Hors category climb.
Stage 9, July 7: No big mountains, but four Cat. 1 climbs through the hills.
Stage 11, July 10: First time trial.
Stages 15-20, July 14-20: The big mountain stages, all back-to-back (with another time trial on July 17). Stage 15 is the longest stage of the tour at 242.5K (150 miles).
Tonight Crow's Feet is commemorating the tour with a special showing of Breaking Away at Tin Pan Theatre (9 pm, $5). They'll also have a screen printing press so you can make your own "Cutters" T-shirt.
