A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

What: Tour de France Web sites

Another international sporting event, the Tour de France, is upon us, and once again the Internet has it covered.

But to begin, you must start at the official site, www.letour.fr.

At first look, the site is too cluttered for its own good. It does, however, offer things from race reports and a gift boutique to a search engine containing information on every rider.

The problem, however, is that the rider search, along with a rider list, full standings and sponsor list don’t work every time you try to use them.

And the things that did work all the time were nice, but not enough to make up for the frustration I felt when it wasn’t all working.

Then there is the BBC’s Web site, www.bbc.co.uk.

The least attractive of the three sites, www.bbc.co.uk is also the most informative in terms of just straight news on the tour. And this year’s tour has had plenty of headlines.

But the yellow jersey goes to www.velocity1.sportsline.com/tour98.

Promising about everything the official Web site promises, only with better results, this site has the best coverage.

Along with overall race standings, there are standings for the best sprinter and best climber categories of the race.

Also, the site has plenty of features in its Pro-Files section. And it has a detailed map, boutique and detailed history of the tour.

While the standings in the Tour de France may be tight, the race to provide the best coverage isn’t.