Gracie Elvin
After first joining the SBS Tour de France coverage from home in 2021, Gracie is working with the crew in Europe this year providing commentary and insights that draw on her 12 years of international racing experience, including two as the Australian women’s road race champion.
The SBS Cycling live broadcast team. (L to R) Christophe Mallet, Mark Renshaw, Simon Gerrans, Kate Bates, Bridie O'Donnell, Matt Keenan, Dave McKenzie and Gracie Elvin. Credit: BWP
While there is always debate about who will take the overall GC or who will be the best sprinter, I always look forward to watching the next generation of young stars rise to the occasion. There is so much new talent coming through at the moment and I really enjoy seeing fresh faces taking their opportunities to shine.
I have a lot of respect for the professionalism and precision of the top athletes and teams, but I always enjoy watching riders that have nothing to lose try to shake things up.
Can you tell us a little about one of the more interesting or surprising challenges you’re looking forward to as part of your role in covering the Tour de France?
I’ve been lucky to have had a long career as a professional cyclist and have plenty of experience from countless tours that will help me in this first time role in the SBS team, but I think I will find the days much longer and harder because when you are an athlete all you have to do is race and recover! When you are a rider, your laundry is done for you, you get a massage every day, and you don’t have to think about any of the logistics.
It will be a big learning curve for me in this new role, but I am really excited and feel so well supported by the whole SBS team. I loved to share my journey when I was an athlete to engage fans, and now I’m excited to share other riders’ stories and my passion for cycling with Australian audiences.
What do you hope audiences will enjoy seeing and discovering during this year’s Tour de France?
There has never been a better time to tune in and watch Le Tour whether you are a long-time fan or new viewer. Aside from the ever-beautiful landscapes of France, the insights provided by the broadcasters and the commentary team about the riders, teams, race tactics, and physiological data will give any audience member a rich viewing experience.
I’m most excited about highlighting how good the Australian riders are and getting the cycling community back home cheering for them loudly every night, and motivated to get out on their own bikes and have dreams just as big.
Mark Renshaw
Building on 10 Tour de Frances in his jersey pockets as a racer, Mark will be based in Australia during this year’s Tour, sharing Le Finale sprint reviews from the SBS studio in Sydney.
Is there a moment or a stage that you are particularly excited to watch unfold in this year’s Tour de France?
As an ex-professional sprinter and lead-out rider, I am always very excited to see the first and last sprint stage of the Tour de France. To win the first stage is a massive mental boost for a sprinter facing three weeks of suffering on the road chasing victories. Then to arrive in Paris on the Champs-Élysées, on the final stage, and go for victory on the most famous of pave streets in the world has my heart rate pumping. It's the world championships for sprinters every year. You must ride 3500km to be part of this sprint and your body is completely spent by the time you arrive there.
Can you tell us a little about one of the more interesting or surprising challenges you’re looking forward to as part of your role in covering the Tour de France?
I’m really looking forward to covering this year’s Tour de France and recording my Le Finale segment from Australia. I will review the sprint finals after each sprint in the race and this will be really exciting as an ex-professional sprinter. I imagine it will be very difficult to go to sleep in the early hours of the morning after watching these huge sprint stages.
What do you hope audiences will enjoy seeing and discovering during this year’s Tour de France?
I hope to bring the audience more detail into how riders and teams are winning these stages in the Tour de France. It’s very much a team sport and the tactics make the race so exciting. I will break down the finals to show the audiences where riders will win or lose the sprints with split second decisions.
Matthew Keenan
Matt started commentating on the world feed for the Tour de France‘s English language broadcast back in 2007 making his voice, and encyclopedic cycling knowledge, familiar to many cycling fans these days - and a welcome introduction to the sport for first timers.
Is there a moment or a stage that you are particularly excited to watch unfold in this year’s Tour de France?
Stage 5 is a must watch and there isn’t a mountain in sight. It goes across 11 cobblestoned sectors, four of which feature regularly in Paris-Roubaix.
Yellow jersey contenders such as Primoz Roglic and Enric Mas will be nervous, at least they should be, while Tadej Pogačar and Geraint Thomas could see it as a chance to create some gaps. Meanwhile the classics specialists, like Mathieu van der Poel and Peter Sagan, will be out to tear the race apart in a bid for stage honours. This will be clash of the climbers fighting for survival and the cobblestone kings vying for victory.
READ MORE
Tour de France 2024: Stage-by-Stage
Can you tell us a little about one of the more interesting or surprising challenges you’re looking forward to as part of your role in covering the Tour de France?
The sprint stages can be the most difficult and exciting in the commentary box. When two riders gently roll off the front, for what looks like a pure TV time breakaway, the commentary becomes a test cricket conversation. But as the race approaches the finish, and the sprinters begin rubbing elbows, it’s time to flick the switch. And in the chaos of 174 riders charging towards the line there’s always a little fear, a sense of self-doubt that has me hyper concentrating, to ensure I call the right rider across the line as the winner. Photo finishes get my adrenaline going.
The SBS Cycling commentary and presentation team
I hope, particularly anyone new to the sport, will finish the Tour thinking, “Cycling is the most beautiful sport in the world.”
There is no sporting stadium like the Tour de France. The MCG, centre court Wimbledon, Madison Square Garden are all fantastic sporting venues. But they can’t compete with the cobblestones of northern France, the climb up Alpe d’Huez or the battle that we’ll see on the final mountain stage to Hautacam in the Pyrenees.
Together with the audience we’ll get to explore Denmark and enjoy the beauty and history of France. And through that, I hope more people fall in love with cycling by discovering how the teams work, the sacrifices of a domestique for his leader and the bond between rival sprinters in their bid to make it through the mountains.
Christophe Mallet
SBS Presenter Christophe Mallet says he's most looking forward to how Aussie Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroen) fares in his quest for a podium place at this year's Tour de France.
Is there a moment or a stage that you are particularly excited to watch unfold in this year’s Tour de France? Why?
I am excited about stage 18 to Hautacam. It is a legendary climb, it has always been the scene of major development every year it was there. This is my 5th Tour de France on site for SBS, but I have followed the race since I was a kid, back in France, and I have vivid memories of scorching summer days, hearing the tv blasting out in the background, and Hautacam is one of these names that stay engrained in your brain, probably for the rest of your life. I cannot wait to be there, experience it and live it.
Can you tell us a little about one of the more interesting or surprising challenges you’re looking forward to as part of your role in covering the Tour de France?
The ‘being back on the ground’ feeling will be huge. I have a massive expectation about this year’s Tour de France, but also am very aware that, like everything else that has changed in the past few covid years, the Tour de France must have to, so there is a certain apprehension about what we will find, how it will be, but no matter what, I hope (and I know really) the feeling of turning somewhat of a dark page over that last few year will dominate. Change is always challenging, but it also helps resetting, and this is what I am looking forward the most, being back to normal, it will just be a new normal.
What do you hope audiences will enjoy seeing and discovering during this year’s Tour de France?
I hope I will be able to guide the audience through a country that I will always call home. France is my blood, and I want to take the audience on a journey with me, and make them love the country, the people, the scenery and the food even more. The Tour de France is a post card on much more than just a place, it is a postcard that highlights my culture, my roots, my blood, and I want to do the event justice and take the Australian audience on this journey with us.
Jamie Finch-Penninger
You won’t hear much from Jamie during the Tour de France, but if you’ve followed any of the #SBSTDF written content or social media over the last seven years, you’ve certainly read a lot from him. Jamie is part of the Digital Team based in Sydney.
Is there a moment or a stage that you are particularly excited to watch unfold in this year’s Tour de France?
The return of the cobbles, Alpe D'Huez, the O'Connor experience, Planche des Belles Filles x2, can anyone beat Pogačar... really there are so many highlights that people like me fantasise about in the lead-up to big races. However, what I love about cycling is its capacity to surprise. There's a vast range of things that can happen in a bike race, and the Tour throws up so many of these moments that shock, tantalise and inspire.
I'm lucky enough to have the chance to talk to a lot of these athletes and get to know them at least a little bit, it makes it that much more special watching it all play out live.
Can you tell us a little about one of the more interesting or surprising challenges you’re looking forward to as part of your role in covering the Tour de France?
I'm based in the SBS studios in Sydney, writing things, cutting and editing videos from the broadcast, interacting with the #couchpeloton on social media and helping coordinate with the team on the ground in France sending us all the great footage, interviews and extra content that we get to put up on the SBS Sport site and SBS On Demand.
It's immensely rewarding and probably the best bit of the role is that I get to watch all of the racing live, but the downside is that it's roughly 60-hour work weeks, almost entirely at night, for a month. It's pretty much all cycling. Which isn't a bad life.
What do you hope audiences will enjoy seeing and discovering during this year’s Tour de France?
There's so much that we've got coming that is really exciting, but for me, I really hope that people enjoy 'The Finale with Mark Renshaw'. Go check out the previous episodes on SBS On Demand and the site if you haven't yet, but basically, it's Mark Renshaw, one of the best leadout riders of all-time breaking down sprints, peloton action and the little things that you wouldn't normally think about when you're watching a bike race without half a lifetime of experience racing at an international level.
I'm just the guy that edits up the video. Mark is the talent of the operation and one of the nicest people that I've had the chance to work with.
It's the biggest race of the cycling season and the best place to watch the Tour de France - LIVE, FREE and EXCLUSIVE - plus the first edition of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is right here on SBS.
