If you're following an event through media, then those media define the event.
The Tour was designed to sell a sports newspaper in a slack time, which is why 'L'Equipe' is still important.
Amaury Sport Organisation is a company that owns, designs and organises top international sporting events. Specialised in the ‘non-stadia’ events, it has in-house knowledge of professions linked to organisation, media and sales of sports events.
A.S.O. organises 250 days of competition per year, with 70 events in 21 countries.
A.S.O. is involved in 5 major sports including cycling with Le Tour de France, motor sports with Le Dakar, sailing with Le Tour Voile, mass events with the Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris and golf with the Lacoste Ladies Open de France.
Amaury Sport Organisation is a subsidiary of the Amaury Group, media and sport group that owns the newspaper L'Equipe.
It's mainly consumed through TV, but print coverage is still extensive, The Telegraph is best in the UK.
I've never got into 'dot-watching', although it was useful when I was filming Wheels of Fire's recent record, apart from between Pitlochry and Inverness, where the signal is absent.
I do have a tip for watching the Tour live on TV. L'Equipe's principal photographer is ferried around on a 1990s BMW K75, it's red, with a white radiator surround. It has the most privileges of all the motos, so it's seen where the action is.
This photo is from 2013, it must have been dropped since, and they haven't painted the replacement radiator surround.