The Tour was the 25th in succession broadcast by Eurosport and saw, for the first time ever, the "La Course by Le Tour de France", an event gathering the elite of women's cycling.

This event, won by The Netherlands' Olympic and world champion Marianne Vos, contributed impressive figures to the total Tour numbers, with more than 2.6 million viewers tuning in to watch the historic race.

Eurosport's live action of this year's Tour was enhanced with daily expertise from America's three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond whose daily live show "LeMond on Tour", which previewed each stage, racking up 17.6 million viewers across Eurosport channels during the three-week Tour.

More than 17.6 million people tuned in to watch Greg LeMond's daily show "LeMond on Tour" ©Getty Images



There were also strong viewing figures across various local markets with numbers in France the best since 2002.

In Italy, home of race winner Nibali, audiences were up by 143 per cent compared to 2013, while in Spain numbers increased 33 per cent on last year.

Eurosport's Polish market, home country to Rafal Majka who won two stages at of this year's Tour, was also a big hit for the company as a record number of viewers caught the action of cycling's biggest global event.

Eurosport covered the 2014 edition of the Tour de France - which began in Great Britain - with a record 350 hours of broadcast on Eurosport and Eurosport 2, including more than 90 hours of live TV, all in high definition.

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