The new UCI Mountain Bike World Cup organisers have added more racing to the live coverage for 2023. But the events we are used to watching live for free on Red Bull TV will require some form of payment to view. Here’s what we can expect as South African mountain bike racing fans.
By Sean Badenhorst
On Tuesday 28 March 2023, the UCI’s press release stated:
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.
Meanwhile, cross-country marathon and enduro will enjoy race day highlights shows, alongside in-depth bike checks, course previews and exclusive behind the scenes content.
From a South African perspective we will be able to watch the following racing live for free on the UCI Mountain Bike Series YouTube channel – link here.
- UCI XCO World Cup Under-23 men and women races
- UCI Downhill World Cup Junior men and women races
- UCI Downhill World Cup Elite men and women Semi-final races
But these races, the ones we have become accustomed to watching live for free via the Red Bull TV app, can be watched on the Global Cycling Network+ (GCN+) app, for a fee – link here.
- UCI XCO World Cup Elite men and women races
- UCI XCC World Cup Elite men and women races
- UCI Downhill World Cup Elite men and women final races
If you don’t already subscribe to GCN+ via it’s app, it will cost you R719.99 for one year (upfront payment) or R124.99 per month. For comparison, a DSTV Premium subscription costs R839 per month (if you already have a decoder). Speaking of DSTV, we asked SuperSport if they intend broadcasting the 2023 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Series in 2023.
They responded saying that they currently don’t have the rights but that it is “sitting in the acquisitions pot for consideration and is yet to be confirmed”. No confirmation date was given.
If SuperSport does acquire the broadcast rights (which they pay for), DSTV Premium subscribers will be able to watch the XCO, XCC and Downhill finals live on the SuperSport online channel. They do mostly also show it live on their TV platform, but sometimes this is pushed later to make way for a sport that isn’t really a sport, but a game, so isn’t actually live.
In the past, when SuperSport had the broadcast rights in South Africa, Red Bull TV’s live feed was geo-blocked. That won’t be the case with GCN+. So, it’s probably time to subscribe to GCN+, which is purely dedicated to cycling and also broadcasts all the big international road, cyclocross and track cycling events. There are also cycling-themed films and documentaries that can be accessed if you are a subscriber.
In addition to the live UCI World Cup racing, we will also be able to watch, for free, on the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup YouTube channel, highlights packages of the UCI Marathon World Cup rounds and the UCI Enduro World Cup rounds. These will also be shown on GCN+.
In order to still hear Rob Warner shouting “Look at the time!”, you have to watch Red Bull TV’s live coverage of mountain bike racing. This includes the Crankworx events, Urban downhill races and some high-level XCO races (but obviously not the World Cups).
Bart Brentjens, Warner’s co-commentator for the live World Cup XCO and XCC races in the past, has moved to the UCI World Cup commentary team. The lead commentator will be Ric McLaughlin, who will be joined by Brentjens for the XCO and XCC commentary and by former Downhill ace, Cedric Gracia for the Downhill commentary.
McLaughlin is a Northern Irishman who we heard commentating on the 2022 UCI World Champs from Les Gets. Can’t say we were impressed (hard to fill Warner’s shoes!), but it was a late call-up for the guy and he will no doubt gain experience with 80 live races to commentate on this year! The other members of the commentary team are Kate Mason, Josh Carlson and Hayley Edmonds.
It’s a new era and like it or not we can’t change it, so we have to adapt. The good news is that there will be a lot of mountain bike racing to watch, with Enduro and Marathon expanding the World Cup Series to two disciplines that are popular in South Africa. If you haven’t seen it yet, here is the full World Cup Series schedule.
