Please advice your favorite online race-videos to watch while doing your TR workouts. If possible give links and advised start-up times. I usually time the start of the video so the finish is at the end of my workout that day, but in some longer road races the primary action can be found earlier. As not everyone knows every result, please do not spoil the ending completely.
2018 World Championship XCO Women*. What a fantastic race
2018 World Cup XCO Vallnord Mens*. Nino gets a real fight on his hands
2018 World Cup XCO Womens*. All races. A fantastic season with a lot of different riders podiuming in each race
2018 World Cup XCO Vallnord Womens*. Age is but a number
*Available on Red Bull TV (Cannot find links right now, as I am at work. Will fix later)
The best one i have seen recently was the 2018 World Junior road race (the full race is on NBC Sports Gold). Remco Evenepoel, who’s been tipped by no less than Eddie Merckx as being the next cycling God, had an early crash then fought back to demolish the field and win in a solo break away. I usually watch with the sound off but this is one where it is fun to listen to the commentary as they extol his virtues for the entire last hour of the race. If you have ever fantasized about winning a big race, this is probably what is looks and sounds like in your head
It’s been mentioned already, but he 2018 women’s XCO Worlds really is a cracking race. Also I see Matt Hayman’s 2016 Paris Roubaix win is unofficially up on youtube. I might watch that during my next workout.
The Worldcup cyclocross races particularly the women’s races are usually excellent. If you can get a DVD player then the iconic Paris Roubaix film a Sunday in Hell is brilliant.
There’s tons of really great content on RedbullTV from all the world cup races of the season. I know it’s not YouTube, but they have all the different events - even though I already watched them and followed along, it’s still exciting enough to watch the DH races on the trainer.
I also really like the DH movies on YT like Life on Wheels:
And Clay Porter’s 3 Minute Gaps (such an emotional ride, start to finish!)
The RedBull Fast Life Series is also really great and this season they blended DH with XC, following Finn Iles and Kate Courtney.
For people who like watching road races, most of the spring classics from the past several years are on YouTube. Hard to find English commentary but they are great for watching while listening to music. the one day races generally have a little more action than a stage race.
It was a rainy, supper windy day so it looks fairly epic. Good general racing action with a long solo break/chase that is pretty interesting. There is a decent amount of good footage of guys fighting with jackets and vests as the conditions change, some awesome fights in high crosswinds including probably the best ever footage of echelons forming. There is even footage of a couple guys getting literally blown off the road. Then just for added weirdness, there is the section where it looks like every tractor in Belgium has been parked on the side of the course. it is 3.5 hours and there always seems to be something interesting to look at.
Sometimes the only entertainment I can tolerate for tough interval sessions is heavy music. But watching videos on the 90min+ woorkouts where I don’t need to be as focused is a really nice distraction and makes time fly by. Plus, it’s nice to feel like you’re multi-tasking, doing your normal lazy couch entertainment time while also getting a ride done.
I often enjoy on-bike amateur race videos during workouts. Today I was doing Bluebell and watched this P1/2 crit video: Suisun Criterium Pro 1/2 2017 - WIN (full, with data) - YouTube. I found this video nearly perfect for a one-hour workout, especially with its nearly perfect 1-minute laps most of the way through. It worked well with Bluebell’s one minute on/one minute off intervals as I’d imagine going hard for a lap (which I could see on the gps map) then easy for a lap. I imagine this will also be a goto video for future vo2max (2 and 3 minute) workouts. The title gives away the outcome but the finish line is crossed at 1:00:15 if you decide to start at an appropriate time that finishes your last interval on the finish line.
