Read on to discover how to watch the men’s and women’s Olympic cycling road races 2024. This guide explains how to watch the action wherever you happen to be in the world – including options to watch for free – as well as details of how to use a VPN to tune in if you’re away from home.
In the second weekend of road cycling at the Paris Olympics 2024 come the men’s and women’s road races. The men will race from 10am BST on Saturday 3 August, over a 273km course with 2,800 metres of climbing. The women’s race, meanwhile, gets underway at 1pm BST on Sunday 4 August over a 158km course with 1,700 metres of climbing.
It’s one for puncheurs rather than pure climbers, so is likely to suit Classics riders such as Mathieu van der Poel (NED), Wout van Aert (BEL), Elisa Longo Borghini (ITA) and Lotte Kopecky (BEL). Both races start and finish on the Pont d’Iéna in the heart of the city, and there’s plenty of overlap between the routes, with both using the same course out, and also the finishing circuit, which takes in the famous Montmartre area of Paris. The men’s race includes 13 categorised climbs and the women’s nine.
Read on to find out how to watch the Olympics cycling road race from anywhere.
Watch Olympic cycling road race live streams in Australia
In Australia, cycling fans can watch most of the Olympic Games for free on Channel 9 and 9Now– arguably the most complete free coverage in the world.
Viewers across the country can tune in to the 9Now streaming service using the smart device of their choosing to catch all the Games action.
Watch Olympic cycling road race live from anywhere
If you are outside of your home country at the weekend and try to access your usual live streaming services to watch the action, you may find your access to be geo-restricted.
In this case, a VPN service will come in handy, allowing your computer to pretend it’s back home and let you log into your streaming accounts to catch all of the racing action.
Our colleagues at TechRadar thoroughly tested several VPN services and recommend NordVPN:
Watch Olympics cycling road race live streams in the UK
In the UK, cycling fans will be able to watch the Olympic cycling road races live and for free on BBC One. You can also watch the Games online via the BBC iPlayer – though you’ll need a valid TV Licence to do so.
The most complete Olympic Games coverage in the UK, however, will be streamed live on Discovery+, with 3,800 hours of live coverage across 55 channels.
A ‘standard’ subscription to Discovery+, which includes Eurosport’s Olympics coverage, would usually set you back £6.99 or more but a special Olympics deal means you’ll be able to get it for a cut-price £3.99 per month until 11 August. Subscribe before then and you’ll pay that low price until the end of the year.
Watch Olympic cycling road race live streams in the USA
NBC hold the broadcasting rights for the Olympic Games in the USA. The race will be broadcast live on NBC, as well as the network’s streaming service, Peacock TV and the network’s TV channels including NBC, MSNBC, and the USA Network.
Both the men’s and women’s cycling road road races will be available on Peacock and CNBC.
A subscription to Peacock Premium starts from $7.99 per month or $79.99 per year. The ad-free Peacock Premium Plus costs $13.99 per month, and Peacock TV offers a seven-day free trial for those who want to try before they buy.
CNBC is available via cable plans. Don’t have cable? No problem. Sling is a smart TV service that allows people in the US to watch cable channels on their TV, laptop or tablet without actually having to subscribe to an annual cable TV package. You can get CNBC on Sling with the Sling Blue package (which costs $40 per month, $20 for the first month), and the additional News Extra add-on. News Extra will usually set you back $6 per month, but you can get your first month for free.
Watch Olympic cycling road race live streams in Canada
If you live in Canada, you can catch the Olympics across several broadcasters, including CBC, TSN, and Sportsnet.
CBC will be offering plenty of events throughout the Games for free on CBC Gem. Access to the broadcaster’s ad-free premium service costs $5.99 per month, though the ad-supported version is free of charge.
A TSN subscription will set you back $19.99 per month or $199.90 per year, while a standard Sportsnet SN Now subscription costs $19.99 per month or $179.99 per year.
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
