I look at pho­tographs with 3 things in mind — edu­ca­tion, inspi­ra­tion and enter­tain­ment. This extends far beyond still pho­tog­ra­phy to include movies, TV and sports cov­er­age. I find the Tour de France bike race to be one of the most amaz­ing visu­al expe­ri­ences on TV pro­vid­ing a full serv­ing of every­thing I look for.

The Tour is a 21 day dynam­ic chal­lenge for any pho­tog­ra­ph­er and the cov­er­age pro­vid­ed by the Ver­sus cable net­work is first class. These pho­tog­ra­phers and video­g­ra­phers ride along with the 197 rac­ers over the streets of France on the back of motor­cy­cles and hang­ing out of heli­copters with­out get­ting in the way. There is no stop­ping the race to accom­mo­date for adver­tis­ers. Acci­dents hap­pen, and lens­es snap from their cam­era bod­ies.

Yet, these peo­ple per­se­vere to bring you street lev­el views of the rid­er’s faces, from their eyes to their injuries and of the high tech bikes they ride. You see and expe­ri­ence, close-up, all the skill, con­cen­tra­tion and emo­tion that is the sport. Ever chang­ing light­ing, from bright sun­light to full down­pour rain and every shad­ow in between test their expo­sure and focus­ing skills. Shoot­ing mov­ing tar­gets while you twist back­wards on a motor­cy­cle make cre­at­ing good com­po­si­tion an amaz­ing feat.

Dodg­ing spec­ta­tors adds to the dan­ger, but they are also inter­est­ing sub­jects and are includ­ed in the cov­er­age. You must see the cos­tumes and enthu­si­asm of these fans to believe it. Don’t for­get the sup­port teams. Cam­eras and micro­phones are installed to mon­i­tor team strate­gies. It is amaz­ing to watch these small cars, cov­ered in bike parts run the gaunt­let of peo­ple crowd­ing the nar­row roads, bikes and motor­cy­cles wind­ing between them.

And, you get a free tour of France, amaz­ing­ly pho­tographed. While the motor­ized cam­era peo­ple show us the cob­ble­stones, the local hous­es and gar­dens of the small towns and big cities of France, the heli­copters give us grandiose views of medieval cas­tles, cathe­drals and estates. There are end­less miles of sun­flower filled farm­land, green forests and vis­tas from the high­est Alps. The Ver­sus cam­era crews always find a way to include the pele­ton as a focal point in the com­po­si­tion when­ev­er pos­si­ble.

The race start­ed July 3 and runs until July 26. Every day includes between 3 to 5 hours video of race cov­er­age, inter­views and tech­ni­cal analy­sis. The pic­ture qual­i­ty has improved great­ly over the past few years and is now broad­cast in HD. This TV event is not just cov­er­age of a sport but also a col­or­ful, undu­lat­ing visu­al feast for the eyes.

Check your local list­ings (it feels fun­ny to write that) and vis­it http://www.versus.com/ for more infor­ma­tion.