Broadcast Details & Commentators Revealed for the 2023 World Cups
The UCI Mountain Bike World Series has released all the ways to tune in and watch the 2023 World Cups with all coverage set to be available globally on GCN+.
With the coverage coming from the newly set up UCI Mountain Bike World Series viewers in 2023 can expect 135 hours of racing broadcasts with free showings of the U23 Cross-country Olympic and Junior Downhill racing alongside free semi-finals broadcast for the Elite Downhill. Both Elite XC and DH finals will be behind the paywall on GCN+ or Eurosport/discovery+ where available.
When it comes to the actual coverage of the races the press release states that with the help of Warner Bros. Discovery the broadcasts will feature "over 20 cameras on course, supplemented by three camera drones, the mountain biking viewer experience will be completely transformed at each event – offering fans entirely different angles from each venue and ensuring every major moment is captured in every single race - a first for the sport."
2023 will also see for the first time the U23 XC and Junior DH racing get live streams as the UCI Mountain Bike World Series aims to broadcast these for free on the UCI Mountain Bike World Series YouTube channel, plus UCI Mountain Bike World Series YouTube channel, GCN+, Eurosport, discovery+ and GMBN Racing.
While the DH and XC racing will get plenty of live broadcasts across a race weekend the Enduro coverage is set to remain as just in-depth highlights and behind-the-scenes coverage with the usual live timing system during the races. The XC Marathon racing will also be covered with in-depth highlights and behind-the-scenes footage.
Finally, alongside the revamp to the broadcast schedule the UCI Mountain Bike World Series has revealed who we can expect to be on the mics for the racing with Kate Mason leading the team alongside Cedric Gracia for DH and Bart Brentjens for XC. The team will also feature Josh Carlson and Hayley Edmonds as reporters. Ric McLaughlin will be acting as lead commentator for the coverage.
 | I am extremely excited, of course. We are going to add new technology into this beautiful sport, drones following races, incredible views, put your seatbelt on because it’s going to be flat-out. |
You can find out more on the UCI Mountain Bike World Series website here.
Original Press Release
The UCI Mountain Bike World Series is excited to reveal that there are more ways to watch the UCI Mountain Bike World Cups than ever before.
Fans will be treated to a completely new way of enjoying live broadcasts this season, as the sport ushers in a new era of coverage of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cups in cross-country Olympic, cross-country short track, cross-country marathon and downhill. Warner Bros. Discovery will harness the breadth of its network throughout the year to grow the sport and ensure the widest possible audiences are reached. Live broadcasts of the downhill, cross-country Olympic and cross-country short track elite finals and coverage of all major races from each of the 13 race weekends will be available globally on GCN+*.
GCN+ can be accessed worldwide through a monthly or annual subscription. Racing coverage and content is available live and on demand via the GCN App, all web browsers, Amazon FireTV, Samsung Smart TV, AndroidTV, Chromecast, Apple AirPlay and Apple TV.
As well as broadening the reach of the series, Warner Bros. Discovery will revolutionise the way mountain biking is watched by fans across the globe. With over 20 cameras on course, supplemented by three camera drones, the mountain biking viewer experience will be completely transformed at each event – offering fans entirely different angles from each venue and ensuring every major moment is captured in every single race - a first for the sport.
And it’s not just the elite finals that will enjoy coverage this season, with free to air live streams of the U23 cross-country races as well as the Junior and Semi-Final downhill races on the UCI Mountain Bike World Series YouTube channel, plus UCI Mountain Bike World Series YouTube channel, GCN+, Eurosport, discovery+ and GMBN Racing.**
Meanwhile, cross-country marathon and enduro will enjoy race day highlights shows hosted on the UCI Mountain Bike World Series Youtube channel, alongside in-depth bike checks, course previews and exclusive behind the scenes content.
Fronting the new coverage will be a new talent team headed up by Kate Mason, who will anchor each of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series events broadcast on Warner Bros. Discovery platforms, starting with the first round of the 2023 UCI Cross-country World Cups from Nové Město na Moravě in May.
Mason will be joined by legendary racer Cedric Gracia as an expert commentator in downhill, while titan of the sport Bart Brentjnes will fulfil the same role for cross-country. They’ll be joined by reporters Josh Carlson and Hayley Edmonds, with Ric McLaughlin completing the team as lead commentator.
Cedric Gracia, visiting the Cube studio in London for the cycling season launch event, said: “I am extremely excited, of course. We are going to add new technology into this beautiful sport, drones following races, incredible views, put your seatbelt on because it’s going to be flat-out.”
The UCI Mountain Bike World Series kicked off last week with a double header UCI Enduro World Cup in Tasmania, and roars back into life in the Czech Republic on (11-14 May) with the UCI Cross-Country World Cup in Nové Město na Moravě, whilst the UCI Downhill World Cup live coverage starts its season in Lenzerheide, Switzerland (8-11 June).
*Coverage of the UCI Cross-Country Olympic, Cross-Country Short Track and UCI Downhill World Cups will be available globally on GCN+, and will also be shown on Eurosport and discovery+. The UCI Cross-Country Marathon and Enduro World Cups will benefit from in-depth highlights and behind the scenes coverage on the UCI Mountain Bike World Series YouTube Channel as well as GCN+.
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Also, good luck to Cedric, the gap he is trying to fill is huge.
So during the race I think it would be all Ric/Bart/CG, then Kate joins them for a chat at the end and then says "and now check out sailing" or whatever at the very end.
Hard to see him making the emotional connection that Rob gives.
They should just get the Marble racing guys. If they can make that exciting...
Here is another article on the new line up from 17hrs ago with slightly mor info and pics.
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/production/wbd-unveils-2023-cycling-production-plans/5180601.article
d11p0alxbet5ud.cloudfront.net/Pictures/780xany/1/3/4/1394134_copyofcube172_809593.jpg
this is what I wrote below...
He seems like a great guy.
I had been critical of his commentary before.
Mainly for the fact that I find his accent charming but very hard to understand,
and worse when commentating during action. English is my first language, well after foul.
I have no ill will against him, Scotland or the Scottish. My first and last names are Scottish, and I have a voice like a strangled cat! Commentary is very very difficult. We were very privileged to have Warner for free.
I actually sent them contact details for a world class voice and presentencing coaching I know in Australia.
I hope they did it for both ours and their sakes. they still have time as we know that they are in aus at the moment.
I was presently surprised when watching the highlights. and I just rewatched it again.
I think he has greatly improved and was very good at doing the intros and anchor man and over to you Jim role as well as his interview at 23.00. He is also good at pieces to camera when not adding excitement. 8/10
His action commentary part of the video was not as good (which he won't be doing in the future it sounds). As he adds excitement, and his speech quickens his accent increases and becomes harder to understand. The THs and FFs become discombobulated as SSs lose control. his SSSs are always problematic. I know some world class orthodontist, but they are not in Scotland. 6.8/10 all because of phonetics
I hope for the next video they let Josh do the action commentary and possibly with Cedric as a dry run. and record his live commentary he does at the venue over the Pa for training purposes. Josh might be good on the PA, but his non live "shouty man" commentary he did with Ric 3 or 4 rounds ago, I found it abysmal. A generous 2/10.
I would much rather have Ric than Shouty Man Josh
My comments from Montana video
gcrider (Sep 19, 2022 at 2:02)
I think it was there best video yet.
I really enjoyed Rics single person commentary over the 2-person set up with faux excitement that they have had recently. (The main reason I don’t watch WRC)
The camera and drone work is great. Congrats on that amazing drone crash shot!
But I agree they need more camera operators.
The audio was also way better than the last video (no shouting man in this one thank God)
Speaking of god. What does biblically tight mean? (Mr google does not know either)
Thanks for great vid
I am looking forward to the next round after seeing this vid.
@chris-b-mtb:
@chris-b-mtb Feel free to contact me for those contact details and other ways I can help
We would miss Claudio spelling names in the correct way hehehehe.
My issue isn't his accent, it's that he delivers everything in the same fake-excited tone, lacks nuance or insight and tries (unsuccessfully) to put a bombastic spin on everything in the EWS coverage.
I'm more of an idiot than I thought.
I think the Fake excitement will go if they actually tape it live.
I can't fake excitement when I know what my Christmas presents are.
I'd just like someone more measured, experienced (in DH racing) and insightful in the lead role.
If I have Discovery+ in the U.S., can I watch people ride bikes? Or do I still need to pony up for GCN or whatever?
Maybe I'm old, but this shouldn't be so convoluted.
They do support Martyn Ashton so that's nice, but the majority of it is click-bait cycling content.
Im not a roadie, but I love roadie tech, and the GCN Tech show was usually pretty good.
The GCN shows in general were pretty good actually, good news contenct, etc.
For some reason I couldnt ever get into the GMBN channel. not sure why. I was pleased to see Quinney pop at PinkBike, I quite liked him on GMBN
If you’re interested in road or cross it’s more complicated: GCN/Eurosport shows basically all these races in Europe, but many of the bigger races (e.g. monuments, Tour de France) are owned by other broadcasters in the US. A simple and effective workaround is to get a good VPN, set your location to Europe and log in to GCN+. This allows you to watch pretty much all cycling of any kind. I pay for both a VPN (Nord) and GCN+, but find it totally worth the money ($70/year more or less) for the amount of entertainment I get.
Well done sir, have a kick ass day!
GCN+ is available on all web browsers, Amazon FireTV, Samsung Smart TV, AndroidTV, Chromecast, Apple AirPlay and Apple TV.
The US streaming calendar is here:
help.globalcyclingnetwork.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360015571479-United-States-of-America
I will get gcn+, and just pay monthly for the 5 months of DH racing. Some of the other vids could be quite good.
Full races and highlights available on demand in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch and Japanese
If you are only interested in DH racing, then I believe you only need to get three months of GCN+ for $27. Sign up for June 9th to July 2nd (3 races), Cancel within one month of signup date. Rejoin August 23rd to October 8th (2 months, 5 races). Cancel before two months. Those are the race dates so you can sign up earlier in August and still keep to 2 months.
There is one XC race in Nove Mesto on May 12th to the 14th. So its 4 months if you want cross country.
If they do a similarly good job with mountainbiking it'll be fabulous.
I hope whoever is commentating will get some guidance and tutoring via Discovery anyway.
But I don't care too much because I won't pay for the streams anyway
it still impresses me after all the years being a biker and working in the industry how narrow minded bikers are..
but braodcasters/mediahouses/tv crews whatever you may call it, developped since the 90's. you don't expect a new bike coming out being like a 90's bike either.
getting a football commentator is worst that could have happened.
The media houses didn't change their style SINCE 2000s (that was when Eurosport had DH, not just 90s). Not in a significant way that is. I would know. I work for a huge TV corp. What is proritized is "safe", middle of the road, "presentable", bland delivery.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVwvXKhQvkE
@Korbi777: Haha, legendary!
We will see if discovery is the right partner to cover this sport, but I won’t mind paying if it’s worth it.
I'm happy that you will pay for it, and so is Discovery. They could blow Red Bull coverage out of the water and I ( and many others) will still not pay so they can make a profit. It might be petty but my mentality is that not everything needs a price.
Red bull broadcast it for "free" so they could advertise their energy drink for "free"
wise up.
The reality is that coverage such as this is completely uneccesary, it's a luxury that we've all enjoyed by way of Red Bull for the last 10 years. Your mindset is the reason quality has to have a price, you're willing to pay for anything.
Wise up.
everything has a price, nothing is for free.
bet you pay for cable, and your phone, and internet, not sure why this is any different for you.
Pick your hill I guess
brand recognition and all that.
I was thinking to myself that this is the kind of person that believes that marketing doesnt work on them, then you came up with this little gem of a comment...
Its all advertising, and most will happily splash out $100 for a polyester Dakine jersey that offers little to no benefit over any other polyester jersey out there.
Its all advertising and marketing, to strengthen the brand, the brand is eternal, the brand is the most important thing
Long story short - purchasing these broadcasting rights is an investment. They want a net-positive payoff and selling subs is how they plan to do that. Not shocking.
I'm sorry that you feel everything has a price and nothing is free. I do plenty of things to ensure I don't pay for everything.
Are you kidding me? As an advertising medium?? As an economic driver?? I mean jesus christ its just bikes. This isn't football or any of the traditional professional sports and thats one of the very unique things about it.
If a cyclist falls in the woods and the larger world audience isn't aware of the sport, did it really happen - is that the point we're at now?
Red Bull did an amazing job of bringing this sport to the mainstream while still respecting everything that made the sport great. The uci simply sold out the rights for easy money. I’ll happily eat my words if proven wrong. But a pay wall to watch the finals is going to likely wreak havoc on viewership and I have very little faith they can make semifinals and recaps quality enough to bring new fans to the sport. All the while discovery is going to try to make the sport as commercially friendly as possible to attract sponsors that do not give one shit about the sport other than how many viewers will see their advertisements.
Red Bull was undoubtedly a passionate partner that served the sport extremely well. They took rob and made him into one of the Best broadcasters in sports. Their broadcasts attracted a huge sponsor in Mercedes not that it helped the sport at all as opposed to lined the uci’s pockets.
Discovery so far is simply taking money out of fans pockets and the teams as well by greatly increasing entry costs. We’ll see if Long term they bring more money in but downhill and xc are only going to grow of viewership increases drastically and I see no reason this format would do anything but the opposite.
Granted I don;t know that for sure, but there is a zero percent chance they weren't getting something out of every click.
Bring more interest to the sport if you have to pay to watch it?
You think Red Bull wasn’t paid to broadcast by the fees to organize events the same way discovery/eso will be.
The funny part is, discovery doesn’t have a product to sell, just marketing space to sell. So it’s a loss lose for viewers having to pay. Instead of one title sponsor, we’ll have many many sponsors and the commercials that come with them.
To your first point, no redbull does not have a hugely profitable media company. Redbull media makes very little money. Like others have pointed out, redbull media is used by the company simply as a form of in house advertising. It’s in most cases break even or money losing on its own. Some ventures like F1 may turn some profit but it’s a drop in the bucket of redbull’s overall profits. I read somewhere that 98% of redbulls revenue comes from selling the drinks.
To your second point, no redbull was not paid to broadcast races. Thats literally the exact opposite of how it works. Redbull or discovery has to pay the UCI for the rights to the broadcast. Since redbull showed it for free and ran no ads for outside products on the broadcast, they likely made no direct revenue off showing the races. The value up them was solely brand recognition and advertising the drinks.
car manufacturers using rally racing for technical product development > bike manufacturers using DH racing to drive sales to Dads
In Motorsport, only the most elite can afford to race, is that what you want for MTB too?
The brand is everything, its not just the individual product.
Have you ever wondered how an energy drink company can do the things they do, its not just from selling you cans of sugary wings.
the brand is everything, and we all know the brand.
without a grassroots feeder program, there would be no elite level racing
Because it's 2023.
Maybe it's different in the UK but in NA nobody born in the last 25 years has cable tv or subscribes to sports channels.
The viewership of every major sport is shrinking. The average age of their viewers is going up nearly one year per year in many cases, and the old fashioned paywalled-sports-channel model is dying. Channels like ESPN are shedding viewers and laying off staff and the stakeholders in every major sports team and league are kept up at night trying to figure out how to follow the audience to where it lives today before it's too late.
As a sport that was broadcast online for free, this one was already ahead of those guys. But you're telling me a plan that goes backwards to copy them is "the future of this sport"?
*How are going to grow your audience by copying a model that has a shrinking audience?*
The younger generations still spend lots of time watching things on screens, but they don't want to pay up front. The barrier to entry has to be as low as possible. They'll sit through piles of ad supported content once they're watching, and they'll even hand out their own money AS they watch, a lot like throwing coins into a busker's guitar case as you watch him perform. But you can't charge them just to get a look.
At the very least this plan needs a free to watch WITH ads option along side the pay to watch ad free one.
you also understand that being an energy drink, or something small and instantly recognizable that athletes can hold in their hand at virtually all times is important right?
like frigidaire has a harder time justifying that sort of sponsorship cause you have a hard time holding a microwave in your hand at all times.
The brand trades on the value of what it is, not just sales of individual items.
Its great, dont drink the stuff, or watch TV, or use the internet, but dont try to kid yourself that you, or anyone else is immune to the effects and power of being bombarded by constant brand images.
Also, being on PB is critical for work?
economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/trade/exports/insights/the-red-bull-billionaires-secret-recipe-for-success/articleshow/95157536.cms?from=mdr
Red Bull's trick is selling a product that costs them pennies (cents) to make for an average of £1.75 in the UK, which they do via heavy marketing but those that watch their stuff but don't buy their drinks are worth nothing to them
Expensive, sure, but can still be done for cheap.
if we want to do it, we will find a way, theres always a way if you want to do it badly enough.
MTB racing at the elite level is still an expensive endeavour.
The Netflix series (which you'll need to pay for) has certainly helped quite a lot.
The only way to watch in NA is to have access to those sports channels.
I also never argued that brand images don't have power or an effect on anyone, you made this up.
I'm also far from a luddite and not attempting to portray myself as one, I just pick and choose what's important to me instead of choosing to live by the mindset that nothing is free, everything has a price. Marketing also has an effect on me, I just choose to see through what's complete bullshit and what might benefit me as a consumer.
I'm still baffled by the fact you keep mentioning internet - I already said I pay for it as it's important for me to complete my work.
You have a knack for twisting others words into whatever helps you prove a point. And yes, if it makes you feel better, PB is a critical part of my day.
I dont buy or drink redbull,
However when I see a RedBull helmet at an event, I know its likely a sponsored athlete. When I see the logo at an F! race, I instantly know who it is. Theres value in that.
I prolly wouldnt tell you if i borrowed money either......
Dont believe everything you read on the internet, this included
Coke, Pepsi, Specialized, RedBull,
its all the same, all manufactured goods are the same in that regard.
sure, the gross margin on the stuff in the can is huge, but so is bottled water
No one thinks that. We just understand that the broadcast is not the product. We are the product and advertisers are the customers. If you're happy to pay to watch ads, then good for you, I guess.
Are you joking or did you miss all those logos plastered literally everywhere on everything in every sport known to man?
"Red Bull TV wasn’t “free”. It was a big marketing gig for them. You paid for the coverage. Just not directly."
No, we did not. You're contradicting yourself. In every company on earth marketing is treated as a cost of generating revenue, not as revenue itself. Redbull spent money to market to us or "buy" our views. We were the product, not the ones paying. The coverage was absolutely, by any definition, free to the viewer.
Where did I say that? Some people in this conversation either fail to grasp or purposefully ignore that a lot of us make conscious choices about what has value for us and what doesn't. I've never paid to watch a mountain bike race in my life, live or on TV, but who knows - maybe watching live will one day be valuable enough to me to pay and get advertised to. Or maybe not. TV coverage? No chance. At least the venue tickets partially cover the venue's cost to UCI/Discovery, so you're not just paying to get marketed to. You're paying for a place for racers to race at.
I'm not getting ridiculous. You need to make up your mind and figure out what your own point is. In one post you say that redbull TV wasn't free "beacuse advertising" and in the next you say Discovery needs to be paywalled "because no advertising". In reality, neither broadcast has 3rd party ads, but both include branding/sponsorship/product placement. Or to make it easier for you, redbullTV is just as "ad-free" for the viewer as Discovery+ by what seems to be your definition of "ads".
Yes you did. The entire redbull broadcast (like all of their events and media) is one giant ad for energy drinks. The only product redbull sells is drinks. Anything with their name or logo on it is an add for energy drinks. It’s the entire reason redbull media exists.
Maybe discovery is not ideal, from either a fan and rider standpoint, but it’s what we have right now. Like it or not the ability of the riders to make money is now more or less directly tied to discovery’s ability to make money. I personally would like riders to make as much as they can, even if that means paying discovery.
Maybe they won’t make anymore money by you paying since you were watching the free broadcasts anyway, but they can certainly let start losing money if people stop watching.
Selfishly I’d love to still have the redbull and Rob Warner, all for free, but again that’s not the current situation we’re are in.
Athletes aren’t employees of GCN, so why would they pay them?
I’m under the impression that they are paying for all of that. Otherwise, who is?
No pro athlete making proper $ does so without viewership. If viewership increases riders will 100% benefit monetarily.
NFL, F1, you name it...they all started small - but ya, - insert "Pro Super Star Athlete" here - makes his/her money because nobody watches them, right?
And nobody pays to watch them, right?
Support it, and grow it. Or just Talk the talk.
The subscription fee is a massive bargain, 8 races and the Worlds on a proper streaming service with increased production value for the price of a couple pairs of grips. How is this even a thing?
Can't wait for the season to start! 100% subscribing. The riders are worth every penny.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Mason
I suspect they chose her because of something specific about her personality and professional commentating background and how they're planning to use her to interface with the expert commentators. It's not a bad formula, when I think about other sports. Having someone play the layman can give viewers who are new to the sport a person they can relate to, and then the expert commentators will provide explanations through her, to the viewer.
We'll see if it plays out that way. It could very well have been a mistake. But again, if the plan was to get a layman on the team, a man with no cycling background wouldn't have significantly changed the dynamic.
They wanted one actual TV presenter on the team, as TV networks tend to do, and she happens to work for them. Obviously she has zero connection to the discipline but that's true about most TV sports commentators in the world. We'll see how she does. I mean you will see, 'cause I'm not paying for Discovery+ or GCN. Plus, the broadcast covers both men's and women's races so I'm not sure what's so strange about having one woman in addition to 3 men on the commentating team tbh.
She's a soccer commentator FFS. There are literally memes about this literal dichotomy.
Mountain biking ain't like other sports, where they're so generic that a layperson can bullshit their way through 90 minutes of pansies kicking a ball around a field.
No one can just jump into a role commentating on the most elite level of MTB, with absolutely no experience and expect to do it convincingly.
I suspect CG will have to carry what will be otherwise absolute cringe.
I'm prepared to admit if I'm wrong though.
And MTB is no different to any other sport, stop trying to make it sound like it is.....
www.pinkbike.com/photo/24467295
Dear Cedric,
You should have turned your internet on for the last few years, I hope you enjoyed the coverage of the Rotorua Dh at the weekend also which demonstrated that drones, although good, are like watching a gopro, but from even higher up and diminish what is going on whilst making for viewing that shows the riders ass and not what is coming up on track.
New tech would be live connected gopros for a live stream from the riders head.
“As well as broadening the reach of the series, Warner Bros. Discovery will revolutionise the way mountain biking is watched by fans across the globe. With over 20 cameras on course, supplemented by three camera drones, the mountain biking viewer experience will be completely transformed at each event – offering fans entirely different angles from each venue and ensuring every major moment is captured in every single race - a first for the sport.”
..Next level hyperbole. They set their own bar through this statement. Now when someone crashes off camera, they aren't living up to this. Perhaps put together a good event first before blasting out statements like this that no one will believe until they see it.
I had been critical of his commentary before.
Mainly for the fact that I find his accent charming but very hard to understand,
and worse when commentating during action. English is my first language, well after foul.
I have no ill will against him, Scotland or the Scottish. My first and last names are Scottish, and I have a voice like a strangled cat! Commentary is very very difficult. We were very privileged to have Warner for free.
I actually sent them contact details for a world class voice and presentencing coaching I know in Australia.
I hope they did it for both ours and their sakes. they still have time as we know that they are in aus at the moment.
I was presently surprised when watching the highlights. and I just rewatched it again.
I think he has greatly improved and was very good at doing the intros and anchor man and over to you Jim role as well as his interview at 23.00. He is also good at pieces to camera when not adding excitement. 8/10
His action commentary part of the video was not as good (which he won't be doing in the future it sounds). As he adds excitement, and his speech quickens his accent increases and becomes harder to understand. The THs and FFs become discombobulated as SSs lose control. his SSSs are always problematic. I know some world class orthodontist, but they are not in Scotland. 6.8/10 all because of phonetics
I hope for the next video they let Josh do the action commentary and possibly with Cedric as a dry run. and record his live commentary he does at the venue over the Pa for training purposes. Josh might be good on the PA, but his non live "shouty man" commentary he did with Ric 3 or 4 rounds ago, I found it abysmal. A generous 2/10.
I would much rather have Ric than Shouty Man Josh
My comments from Montana video
gcrider (Sep 19, 2022 at 2:02)
I think it was there best video yet.
I really enjoyed Rics single person commentary over the 2-person set up with faux excitement that they have had recently. (The main reason I don’t watch WRC)
The camera and drone work is great. Congrats on that amazing drone crash shot!
But I agree they need more camera operators.
The audio was also way better than the last video (no shouting man in this one thank God)
Speaking of god. What does biblically tight mean? (Mr google does not know either)
Thanks for great vid
I am looking forward to the next round after seeing this vid.
@chris-b-mtb:
@chris-b-mtb Feel free to contact me for those contact details and other ways I can help
Sorry about that.
Or have they just gone for the cheapest, easiest option and given it to their mate?
After a quick Google she seems more of a football pundit?
Can we expect Lineker and Shearer next?
So
McLaughlan = Rob
CG = Claudio/Eliot
Bart = Bart
www.pinkbike.com/news/pinkbike-poll-whats-your-idealistic-format-for-viewing-world-cup-downhill-coverage.html
Maybe a hot take but IMO enduro coverage is always going to suck, there's a reason it's still gonna be free. It's just not a good format for viewing and it doesn't make sense to throw a bunch of money trying to get better coverage.
just read: it is available. so good news.
o btw. to all the cheap asses not wanting to spend 40 quids a year to watch the best bike racing in the world: bike racing is better off without you anyway! go suck some freeride balls
The only annoying thing (in the US at least) is that you'll probably still have to do the VPN dance to watch world champs and any road races that NBC carries (TDF, etc), which makes the chromecast thing more difficult. Gotta try to set up a VPN on my router, or just plug the laptop into the TV.
YAY!!!!
> Bros.
Oh.
The article and press release are a bit of a mess TBH, fingers crossed he;s just leading the enduro commentary still.
Fronting the new coverage will be a new talent team headed up by Kate Mason, who will anchor each of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series events
Mason will be joined by legendary racer Cedric Gracia as an expert commentator in downhill
12 May 2023 - 14 May 2023: UCI MTB World Cup Nové Město - XCO, XCC (Live & on demand)
03 June 2023 - 04 June 2023: Enduro - Finale Ligure (On demand only)
09 June 2023 - 11 June 2023: UCI MTB World Cup Lenzerheide - XCO, XCC, DHI (Live & on demand)
15 June 2023 - 18 June 2023: UCI MTB World Cup Leogang - XCO, XCC, DHI, Enduro (Live & on demand)
24 June 2023 - 25 June 2023: Enduro - Val di Fassa (On demand only)
30 June 2023 - 02 July 2023: UCI MTB World Cup Val di Sole - XCO, XCC, DHI (Live & on demand)
23 August 2023 - 27 August 2023: UCI MTB World Cup Valnord Pal Arinsal - XCO, XCC, DHI (Live & on demand)
01 September 2023 - 03 September 2023: UCI MTB World Cup FRANCE TBC - DHI, Enduro (Live & on demand)
07 September 2023 - 17 September 2023: UCI MTB World Cup FRANCE TBC - XCO, XCC, DHI, Enduro (Live & on demand) - This is loudenvielle
28 September 2023 - 01 October 2023: UCI MTB World Cup Snowshoe - XCO, XCC, DHI (Live & on demand) - This is Les Portes du Soleil
06 October 2023 - 08 October 2023: UCI MTB World Cup Mont-Sainte-Anne - XCO, XCC, DHI (Live & on demand)
Crankworx is the new WC.
www.bikekingdomgames.ch/en/Races
Also, there is no way in hell that I'll sit around all day on a weekend watching DH racing. I'm thinking for this year, I just tune into juniors and semi's (free), and maybe start paying for finals coverage next year if they show they've got the chops.
There wasn't really much insight or discussion, but it was decently entertaining 25 minute recap of a long race. I'll watch the net race for sure. I'm still undecided on subscribing. If the riders union can work out some deal where some of that money goes to the actual racers, I'd be more inclined to pay up.
This is why free is better in my opinion because it creates massive worldwide viewership and massively more advertising and sales for the advertising companies.
As opposed to only being able to advertise to the core group of subscribers.
Sounds like this will be a decent product for the $ but I don't think this system is best for the sport. The Red Bull model is great for sport, progressing sport, great for athlete and sponsors
For that price it would definitely want to teach me "which is better?" or "5 tricks only the pro's know".
As a natural dissented to the commonly held views I found Rob's commentary to be repetitive, slightly behind the action a lot of the time and favourable to the people he deemed cool or who he had done one of his "at home" shows with - I only need to hear him tell us how Connor Fearon has the highest cornering speed of any rider once a year but I got to hear it at every race and then be wowed how Connor failed to win anything despite his speed.
I dont need the commentary to enjoy the racing - I need quality footage and some graphics.
They are not working for the good of the sport, as @Jprestidge said:
"UCI, like many governing bodies, is fundamentally not fit for purpose, and this is just one example, among many, of their not working for the good of their membership."
That is truly obnoxious to pull all UCI mtb events under one banner- except World Championships. I would have happily paid to avoid the annual VPN dance.
This is the dumbest attempt at coverage that could've been thought up. Wish Redbull never lost it/gave it up.
The price of one beer at a pub or a mediocre fast food meal, and look at all the $-moaning.
Of course - maybe they are & we just don't see or hear of that (?)
Mostly I don't see how Discovery / GCN expect to grow the sport to new audiences when ya still have to subscribe to either...Redbull is free. Even my 75 yr old parents know what the Redbull channel is - not a biggie. Discovery went from an actually interesting channel / service to Clickbait in just a few short years so they're hard to trust or believe...so expecting them to take on WC riding w/o covering it in velveeta cheese is like expecting McDonalds to serve fine foods. And last, does GCN actually cover mtb at all and if ya subscribe is it just 99% roadies (not my jam) or can ya just watch what ya want? Dunno - I have too many subscriptions to even keep it straight any more.
Personally I think Redbull should just host their own world / nations / regional / urban (and Crankworks) bike events and just totally bypass / siphon off everyone from UCI - does it really even matter if its UCI anyway? With Rob (et all) and Redbull's mojo & style, which is far more core than Discovery - it seems they could load the year with DH, enduro, XC, Crankworks & other events and just own biking. But - maybe it doesn't work that way and I realize this is possibly a massive undertaking but even after all the articles & podcasts with Chris Hall - the 2023 season seems to be shrouded in septic aroma instead of excitement.
TRANSLATION -
If you want to watch that sport you'll love just pay us all the money please!
Bad News: Obviously no more Rob sucks. Wish they could have figured out how to have him back.
best xcmtb nerd of all time the dude rules
ninoshuurtah lucabraidoh
love you bjearart
Kate who? What a joke. Cedric is annoying. Ric is ok though.
Rob is DH commentary FULLSTOP, and they should have paid what he asked for...
Fk at least get an experienced racer, im cringing already and I don't really rate Gracia either.. Not even sure if we can watch in Australia?
Rob should do a pirate replay VoiceOver on some copyright don't give a fk file sharing platform.
I think it is very simple,Discovery/GNC would sell this MTB product to other media to create hype an make new fans pay. So they would made whatever they need to sell more,not what MTB fans wants or even riders.
Why why! Get these pelicans away from me!
Or perhaps any ESO bods monitoring the comments would be kind enough to answer?
Mattias Fluckiger starts to sweat.........
They took the WORST thing about the REDBULL coverage and kept it. I loved everything about the REDBULL mountain bike coverage except for having Bart and his "root trees" bringing little or no insight except when one of his riders was on the screen.
I can't seem to find it anywhere.
It’s going to be epic
I have no interest in football, so you wouldn’t expect me to be a commentator on international football matches, yet this is analogous to the situation with Kate.
It doesn’t need to be an ex pro rider; it just needs to be someone who actually knows about the sport and enjoys it.
I watch all the big road races on GCN and the team do an outstanding job, but all of them live and breath road cycling. I really hope it will be the same for mtb.
Murray Walker is the ultimate example. Never drove a racing car in anger but his passion for F1 made him the voice of the sport forever.