👎 Discovery Sports for Mountain Bike World Cup from 2023

Great, now I’ll have to pay to watch mountain bike races. Red Bull has done such a great job it’s sad to see it going away.

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RedBull has also been amazing in their coverage of the womens side of XC. Hate to lose them.

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guitar-smash

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The proposal by Discovery Sports, which was selected by the UCI as part of a tender process, comprises several strands: those relating to sporting and commercial matters, as well as those concerning the production and broadcasting of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup.

Wow…this is not just for broadcasting, this is for the whole enchilada. I don’t see good things ahead for the MTB World Cup, I’m afraid.

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:face_with_symbols_over_mouth: x :infinity:

:face_with_symbols_over_mouth: x :infinity:

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I personally think the RedBull coverage has been excellent and I’ll be gutted to see it end. Whilst I want to remain positive, I can’t help but think this is going to be a backwards step.

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I share everyone’s sentiments. Redbull took this sport to a different level and infused a ton of interest in both DH and XC at a time when they both needed it.

I have zero issues with paying to watch improved or even equal quality footage, I just remain skeptical of that happening. Let’s all enjoy the last season of Redbull coverage, Discovery has large shoes to fill and I’m worried about the passing of the torch too…

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Discovery Sport isn’t even available everywhere is it?

This sucks big time.

If it means they sell the rights to Sky Sport NZ I’ll be livid. They are still delivering a service from the 90’s with a couple of token online/on demand efforts but no support for non-rugby fans.

I can only find freaking Land Rovers :man_facepalming:.

Does this mean there’s a chance it’ll be on GCN+?

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I think it will.
Just praying they’ll keep Rob and Bart on commentary for the xc.

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I hope they bring back Claudio.

I don’t think they’ll do either, but that’s just my guy feel.

Tell me you’re screwing up Mountain bike racing without telling me you’re screwing up mountain bike racing.

This is a fringe sport as it is. Only more rabid fans are going to pay to get this content. What a joke. I even race and there is no way I’m paying an extra fee to watch these races. I have a GCN subscription to watch cyclocross and a few of the spring classics. I’m not going to pay some other service to watch MTB world cup races. Lame…

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Do they have their own service? I sure as heck can’t find it.

Best case here is they sell the rights to GCN (looks like they already own Eurosport?). GCN is far, far from perfect as a user interface, but better than cable/TV subscription so that’s my only hope right now.

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This sucks! I’m not paying for another streaming channel, I’ll just have to watch highlights on Instagram and YouTube. I look forward to watching the full races every year too . Lame :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

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Eurosport and GCN are both owned by Discovery. Presumably this means that in the US at least, they will show the races on GCN+.

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Yeah. Here in New Zealand Sky typically only gets the rights for the World Champs and we can watch the rest of the series on Redbull.

My hope is GCN will have the rights for the whole lot. I suspect we’ll have the same as in the past. Just so long as they don’t sell the rights to Sky NZ for every race as that’ll make it unwatchable for most cycling fans.

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Probably one of the GCN cyclo-cross dudes :confounded:

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Me too! That was when I was only a few years into mtbing!

I often reference it, noone knows what I’m talking about :rofl:

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The Rob Warner/Eliot Jackson pairing for DH was so good! Hope they keep them both.

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They were good. I miss Claudio’s Blah Blah preview ones very much though.

I watch them with my five year old often.

rrrrah rrrrah rrrrah roots!

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