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Women’s Elite Cyclists Back for La Course by Le Tour de France on Universal Sports

  • Ron 

Universal Sports Network will present exclusive coverage of La Course by Le Tour de France on Sunday, July 26, at 8 a.m. ET. The one-day, elite women’s cycling race will finish on the famed Champs-Elysées prior to the finale of this year’s final stage of the Tour de France.

Twenty top women’s teams featuring 120 athletes from 12 countries will compete in the second edition of La Course by Le Tour de France. With reigning champion Marianne Vos (Rabo-liv) skipping this year’s race, a new winner will be crowned. Riders scheduled to compete include Americans Shelly Olds (Ale Cipollini), who finished third in 2014, and Megan Guarnier (Boels Dolmans), and England’s Lizzie Armistead (Boels Dolmans).

Rhe Universal Sports broadcast team will feature veteran play-by-play announcer Craig Hummer alongside analysts Todd Gogulski, who spent more than a decade racing professionally, and Dotsie Bausch, a 2012 Olympic medalist in track cycling.

“With the thrill, speed and power of women’s cycling on display at last year’s inaugural La Course, I am so excited to be back for what is sure to be another nail-biting race at a time when the attention on women’s sports is at an all-time high,” said Bausch whose commentary will provide perspective on women’s professional cycling. “Thanks to Universal Sports Network, we will once again showcase the intensity and fierce competitiveness of the top women cyclists in the world as they fight for the top prize on the Champs-Élysées.”

In addition to LIVE race coverage, the broadcast will feature an exclusive sit-down interview with American women’s cycling legend Marianne Martin who won the very first Tour de France for women in 1984 which was then an 18-stage road race. Martin relives her win and talks about how women’s cycling has changed over the years and also looks toward its future.

“Women’s racing still isn’t equal to men. I think that’s something that hopefully will change as they [women] are now in the Tour de France,” said Martin. “I hope that women can have a strong presence and that more women will get into the sport and see it as a wonderful sport whether they want to race or just ride their bikes… Cycling is such a great sport and such a great way to maintain fitness.”

With more than 185 hours of exclusive coverage this year, Universal Sports Network is firmly established as the leader in cycling coverage on American television. In addition to La Course by Le Tour de France, marquee events in Universal Sports’ 2015 Cycling Series include the Vuelta a España, Volta a Cataluyna, Tour of Belgium, Tour of Britain, Three Days of De Panne, Four Days of Dunkerque, Tour de Suisse, Tour de Wallonie, Eneco Tour and the UCI Road World Championships in Richmond, Va.

Universal Sports Network is available on DIRECTV, DISH, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS, Cox Communications, Bright House Networks, Google Fiber, and numerous regional cable and IPTV operators in markets across the country. To find Universal Sports by zip code, please visit UniversalSports.com.

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