POLE POSITION

THIS COMING JULY, an estimated 11 million people will come together to watch, in person, the most insufferably boring sporting event on earth. Anticipating heights of monotony that only this event can provide, spectators will travel halfway around the world to catch the tedium as it unfolds. Their days will be overflowing with the utterly mundane, and bookended with soul-crushing gridlock. This Sisyphean event is, of course, the Tour de France.

The better way to watch the Tour is with the 2.6 people sitting in their own homes, taking advantage of its incredible coverage. Swarms of cameramen on motorcycles, cranes, in helicopters and on the ground together spin the race into a narrative of the highest drama. You can see strategies play out in real time, and watch them succeed or fail. It offers a glimpse of humanity that the sport of mountain biking rarely reveals. What we like to watch are people competing against the