The 2025 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup kicks off in Brazil this week with the first of 10 rounds of XCO and XCC racing. As South Africans, we’ll be throwing our support behind Alan Hatherly, Candice Lill, Luke Moir, Tyler Jacobs and others. Here’s how you can watch the racing live.
By Sean Badenhorst
Although he won’t be contesting all the rounds as he balances his road racing and mountain bike racing schedules, Hatherly, winner of the 2024 World Cup Series and the reigning World Champion, will contest most of the 2025 events. Lill, third in the 2024 XCO World Cup Series, is likely contest all 10 rounds in what could be her most important year as a pro bicycle racer.
Moir, who had some impressive results last year in the Under-23 World Cups, will race his first World Cup Series as an Elite, while Jacobs, now a member of the Liv Factory Racing Team, will no doubt continue her progression up the international Under-23 ranks.
Following the retirement of Greg Minnaar last year, we don’t have a South African podium contender in the Downhill currently. But there will be some South Africans contesting certain rounds. As with XCO/XCC, there are also 10 rounds for the Downhill World Cup Series this year.
SuperSport has the rights to broadcast the highlights of the full series in South Africa and 50% of the live racing. We have asked SuperSport which 50% of the races they are likely to broadcast live. They have confirmed that the first two of XCO and XCC in Brazil 5/6 April and 11/12 April will be broadcast live on SuperSport. The table below is a screenshot of what they sent us:
Based on previous experience with SuperSport, they seem to find it easier to broadcast live on Fridays (usually the XCC races) and when the World Cups are outside Europe, so no real clashes with their more mainstay live sports coverage. They have told us they will keep us informed regarding future World Cup rounds.
If you want guaranteed live coverage of every round of both XCO/XCC and Downhill, Staylive is once again the platform for South Africa. It’s a subscription-based broadcast that costs US$5.99 (about R112) per month. It can be cancelled at any time. You can subscribe here.
We subscribed to Staylive during the 2024 World Cup Series and found it to be reliable.
