LE TOUR DE FRANCE 2015 Watch FREE Live Stream Online & Listen: Stage 1 Utrecht, Netherlands

The 2015 Tour De France will kick off today at 12:30 p.m. ET, when Stage 1 from Utrecht, Netherlands gets underway. Cycling fans can live stream the race online free by clicking this link.

Stage 1 is time for time-trialists to shine, and to build up a time cushion before the Tour becomes dominated by mountain specialists. This year's Tour begins on an urban, flat course of 14 kilometers.

Per Telegraph.com, the favorite to win this year's Tour is Chris Froome, who won the 2013 Tour and expects an "epic" battle this year. "The way the Tour's structured this year it is going to be the biggest battle we've seen for years," Froome told BBC.

"That first week is going to be crucial, the first nine days actually until we get up in the mountains on stage 10. In my mind, it's almost as if each one of these nine stages is like a classic race in its own right."

Froome was successful at the Criterium du Dauphine, a traditional precursor to the Tour De France, and will be seeking atonement for last year's debacle, when he fell in the first week and left the race with a broken wrist.

Froome's teammate Geraint Thomas said this race is "100 percent" favorable to climbing specialists, and listed a shallow pool of potential victors. "I can't see the winner coming from anyone but [Alberto] Contador, [Nairo] Quintana, Froome or [Vincenzo] Nibali."

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