Here is another new media way to enjoy the Tour de France. It’s a contradiction in terms, because it isn’t a podcast, it’s a live feed from the BBC website.

Every day the BBC Tour de France reporter Peter Slater commentates on the last hour or two of every stage, and this feed is available via the cycling section of the BBC website. There are no podcast downloads, but it’s a good way to keep up with the race as it happens, if you can’t watch it on tv or sit watching twitter all afternoon.

Incidentally, 5Livecycling has a twitter that has appeared this year. According to the Name and Bio it is manned by Phil Sheehan, who is a producer, presumably out there in France working with Peter Slater. There are so many twitter accounts out there already, that provide live race updates, snippets of pro news, and pithy comment, that this one doesn’t seem to add much other than to promote the commentary and point to new articles on BBC- sorry.

The live commentary is interspersed with snappy sections every half hour, where Slater gives his update to 5Live news. This isn’t explained which can be a bit confusing for the listener. Why not give us a feel of exclusive, behind-the-scenes broadcasting rather than papering over the reality?

The other person in the equation is Graham Jones, a former British racing great, race director of the Tour of Britain, and sometime podcaster himself (more on that later). His analysis is very good as you would expect, although the style is quite muted. Perfect for me actually, as I sometimes listen with half an ear on the feed while working.