Anyone considering the GCN race pass? As someone in the US where coverage of live racing is close to nothing, i’m thinking about it as a way to watch road racing when it starts up again in a few weeks (tentatively).
also as i might cancel my cable, then there goes my NBCSN and TDF coverage. Meaning i’ll probably VPN to watch the grand tours.
anyone have any subscriptions they’re currently using for watching racing that they’d recommend over the GCN one?
I think the deal breaker is no roku app. I’m also interested to know who the commentators and racing experts are. I was trying to subscribe to nbcsn gold cycling pass, but it doesn’t seem like it’s available at the moment. Not sure why.
I had the nbc gold cycling thing last year. I got it mainly for the tour de france…but honestly was pretty unimpressed with the other cycling content.
The GCN racing news show talked about that this week, and it sounds like it’s the Eurosport guys, with Dan Lloyd more often.
I’d consider it, but I just don’t think there’s much value in the US at this time, the race list is pretty meager.
Can’t say I’m a fan of Dan Lloyd’s commentary.
I will be sticking with Eurosport, Carlton Kirby is the Terry Wogan of cycling, Matt Stephens is a natural and Sean Kelly just has to be respected and often comes out with some fantastic dry humour.
I often enjoy the commentary more than the racing!
Thinking of the commentary during Froome’s descent of the Mont Du Chat in the 2017 Dauphine still gives me goosebumps.
Guess I am pretty lucky that we’ve got the tdf for free on national tv. For the rest I’ll be fine with tiz and use the cash for a sub instead for a weekend in Flanders.
GCN Race Pass coverage is limited for the USA as the rights for the Grand Tours and classics are already taken up by other channels.
The past few years I’ve just signed up for the month of July to a streaming service like Sling or Directvnow to watch the Tour on NBCSports.
Useless for US customers, and that’s a disappointment.
Also I don’t have cable and pay for nbc sports cycling pass and get to watch all their races.
Only bullshit thing though is the ads. TdF at least last year had 2 streams, 1 with ads and one without. But for those race replays they’ve been playing the last month all have ads and I REFUSE to watch ads. So Im not sure if this years TdF will still be accessible ad free.
No, not me. I have NBCsports gold, which is pretty good, if I want more, then FloSports bike package is then next one I’d get. Last would be the GCN. If you do the sneaky computer thingy where it tricks websites to think you in a different country and therefore get more races, then it look like a great option.
UK perspective here … seems good value to me, as we get all Grand Tours, classics etc. I took out Eurosport subscription a couple of years ago for the cycling and never watched anything else - so I’ve canned Eurosport and gone with GCN instead. Curious to know what GCN’s relationship with Eurosport is - guessing they had to do some deal with them to secure some of the events they wanted if Eurosport already had the rights.
I notice that aside from the road racing, it includes some CX races - most of which were free on GCN last season. So will be interesting to see what CX remains free outside of the GCN Pass package.
Also gone for it, at 20 euros for a year it is an absolute bargain for all of the races offered here. The GCN app for watching it is also far superior to the eurosport one imo, and chromecast is nice too.
Have you looked at the NBC Cycling Pass? It has everything they air on NBC Sports plus a ton of other races and it $54.99 for the whole year.
Wish I knew how to do that sneaky computer thingy. Wasted ages trying to watch some Belgian cyclo x races. Just not very clever, me!!
Its very much not worth it here in Canada, get very little race coverage compared to elsewhere sadly.
I’m in the US as well, and between NBC Sports Gold & Flobikes you can actually get pretty good race coverage. With the ability to either stream live or replay.
I’m in the USA. GCN Race Pass looks great, but little race content in USA. NBC Sports is comm out on 2020 cycling. But Flobikes has a complete schedule with the full TDF, Giro, (formerly) spring classics, UCI championships and my fav Paris-Roubaix, and many others. It appears without researching that Flobikes picked up cycling content that used to be on NBC Sports pass. So instead of 2 subscriptions/places for content in USA there is one, with more. Me likes.
I will watch how the content contracts move over time. I like the GCN Race Pass model and how GCN is elevating cycling. If more content goes there in USA I will subscribe for sure. Now I will subscribe to Flobikes and am a maybe for GCN Race Pass. Given my huge need for positive distractions in our COVID and other problems world, I may just do both.
be attentive looking through the flobikes list of covered races. some of those races like the TdF and the vuelta are region restricted to canada. In general from what i’ve experienced anything that’s streamed on nbc sports gold won’t play on flobikes or only in canada. It seems like ASO and NBC have a deal going for exclusive US coverage.
that being said to get back on topic i haven’t compared the coverage of the gcn pass to flobikes yet but if there are any holes in flobikes list that gcn fills i’ll probably bother with signing up. always a few obscure races that have live coverage but slip through the cracks of streaming services.
I would recommend a VPN - tunnel and Eurosport subscription for US based fans. I live in Guatemala and with the VPN tunnel I can bring my beloved Malmö FF, ice hockey and other sports with me.
If Carlton Kirby is anywhere near it not a chance, no way, never.