Ned Boulting was working as a football reporter when ITV acquired the rights to the Tour de France back in 2002. He knew little about it, by his own admission, but it wasn’t long before he found himself on the continent tasked with covering what is one of the most prestigious bike races on the planet.

It sparked a love affair with the race which has seen him work behind the mic at the event for 20 editions. Now Boulting, ITV’s lead Tour de France commentator, is performing a one-man show around the country celebrating the race.

Re-Tour de Ned is billed as a “theatrical road map for anyone aspiring to wear the yellow jersey on the Champs Elysées: a really very rough guide to the tactics (pedal faster) and challenges (not pedalling fast enough) which will need to be deployed to win the biggest bike race in the world”.

“It’s supposed to make you laugh and it will make you laugh,” Boulting says. “It’s a fun celebration of all the madness and nonsense as well as the great endeavour and scale and epic nature of the Tour de France very much looking at it from a sideways angle.”

Ned Boulting is bringing his Tour de France show to Yorkshire. Photo: Adam Lawrence

The show explores the history of the tour as well as the latest edition this summer just gone. “Right now I can’t imagine a time where the Tour de France isn’t part of my life,” Boulting says.

He’s come a long way since covering his first edition in 2003. “I had no idea what I was doing. I was floundering around like a helpless fool for a couple of years.

"I knew I loved it, I just didn’t understand it. It took me years to get to the grips with the event.

"It was a very, very steep learning curve and a very public one as well. I think a lot of our viewers looked at me and thought who’s that numpty and why doesn’t he know anything about cycling?”

Boulting has also been involved in covering the Tour de Yorkshire cycling race, which first took place in 2015, the year after the region played host to the Tour de France Grand Départ.

The 2022 Tour de Yorkshire was cancelled with organisers claiming the race “would be unviable” due to “the impact of the Covid-19, combined with escalating financial challenges”. The 2020 and 2021 races hadn’t gone ahead due to the pandemic and plans have been announced to launch a new-look event from 2024.

"The Tour de Yorkshire got off to such a stunning start and instantly it was understood and embraced by the region,” Boulting says. “The crowds and the effort all the villages and towns put in when the race came through was off the scale…

"Very few races achieve what the Tour de Yorkshire did ever and no races in my understanding of it have ever done it as quickly as the Tour de Yorkshire did, capitalising on the Tour de France coming to Yorkshire. It feels like it should come back in one shape or another and I hope it does.”

Boulting is at York Grand Opera House tonight, Ilkley King’s Hall tomorrow and Leeds City Varieties on November 7. Visit nedboulting.com/live

Ned Boulting on Tour de France, Tour de Yorkshire and steep cycling learning curve