This year’s men’s race starts in the northern city of Lille and covers 21 stages over more than 3300 kilometres this year. As always, expect sumptuous shots on the SBS coverage of vineyards, rivers, châteaux and mountains. There is a new twist on the final stage of the Tour this time that will hold our interest until the final day – three climbs of the narrow, cobblestoned Montmartre hill that was so spectacular during the Paris Olympics. Tour director Christian Prudhomme has flagged the climb could lead to attacks if the race for the general classification is still close. The still-new women’s race – Tour de France Femmes – gets more intriguing every year. This time it starts in the Brittany town of Vannes and has been extended to nine stages over 1165 kilometres. With two days overlap between the races, that’s 28 nights of SBS’s live coverage, supplemented with catch-up highlights on SBS On Demand the next morning.