After the European stage racing season kicked off with Étoile de Bèsseges last week, the peloton returns to southern France for the Tour de la Provence.
The four-day race started on Thursday and includes a partial climb of Mont Ventoux. There are a host of big names on the start list, with Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) making his debut at the race, while Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech) also started their seasons in Provence.
Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck-QuickStep) won the opening stage of the race and holds the leader's jersey as the peloton take on stage 2.
Cyclingnews will be bringing you full reports, results, news, interviews, and analysis throughout the race. Read on to find out how to watch the Tour de la Provence via live stream, no matter your location, with ExpressVPN.
Bernal's Ineos Grenadiers squad have sent a strong squad to France, with Iván Sosa, Eddie Dunbar and Gianni Moscon also taking part, while Laurens De Plus will make his debut with the team.
Alaphilippe has also be joined by some big hitters in Rémi Cavagna, Kasper Asgreen and Yves Lampaert. Meanwhile, Astana send the Izagirre brothers and Alexey Lutsenko alongside Vlasov, who won a stage last year.
Giro stage winner Ben O'Connor makes his AG2R Citroën debut, with Aurelien Paret-Peintre looking to continue his good form after a GP la Marseillaise win to start his year. Jack Haig, Wout Poels and Dylan Teuns lead a strong Bahrain Victorious team.
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Bauke Mollema and Giulio Ciccone leads Trek-Segafredo, while Ciccone's compatriot Fabio Aru makes his Qhubeka Assos debut.
Elsewhere, Spaniards Enric Mas (Movistar) and Jesús Herrada (Cofidis) start their seasons in Provence, as Philippe Gilbert and Étoile de Bèsseges winner Tim Wellens lead Lotto Soudal.
A handful of big-name sprinters started the race, with Matteo Trentin and Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates), Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ), John Degenkolb (Lotto Soudal) and Nacer Bouhanni (Arkéa-Samsic) taking part. Other fastmen include Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious), Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers), and Max Kanter (Team DSM).
The first two days of the race feature plenty of hills, with stage 1 to Six-Fours-les-Plages set for a sprint finish while stage 2 to Manosque finishes uphill.
Stage 3, the queen stage, will see the riders tackle 15km of Mont Ventoux to Chalet Reynard, while stage 4 is one for the sprinters.
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The Tour de la Provence will be aired in France online via L'Equipe TV, with around two to three hours a day of live coverage available each day.
In the USA, you can watch the race live on Flobikes, with plans starting from $12.50 per month. The race will also be aired on the channel in Australia.
In the UK and around Europe, the race will be aired live on the Eurosport Player, with a subscription costing £6.99 for a month, £4.99 for a year-long monthly pass, or £39.99 for a 12-month pass. GCN+ will also show the race – that also costs £6.99 per month or £39.99 per year.
If you live outside a broadcast zone or are on holiday outside your country and find that the live streams to be geo-restricted, you can get around this by getting access to them by simulating being back in your home country via a 'virtual private network', or VPN, for your laptop, tablet or mobile.
Our sister site TechRadar tested hundreds of VPNs and recommends the number-one VPN currently available as Express VPN. With ExpressVPN, you can watch on many devices at once including Smart TVs, Fire TV Stick, PC, Mac, iPhone, Android phone, iPads, tablets, etc.
Race schedule
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Date
Stage
Start/Finish
Distance
Start (CET
Finish (CET)
February 11
Stage 1
Aubagne – Six Fours les Plages
179.3km
11:30
16:30
February 12
Stage 2
Cassis – Manosque
170.6km
12:00
16:15
February 13
Stage 3
Istres – Chalet Reynard (Mont Ventoux)
153.9km
12:30
16:50
February 14
Stage 4
Avignon – Salon de Provence
163.2km
12:00
16:00
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