I’m looking for some resources on what to watch while I’m doing trainer rides. Specifically, I’d love to have some race footage or nice smooth FPV footage of fast and fun rides. Something playing in the background that I can either use with music, or use silently.
What do you guys use as far as old race and ride footage while you’re on the trainer? I’d love some mountain biking XC stuff specifically, but crit races, cross, or road will do as well.
Edit: I’m adding in sources that people are listing in this thread so it’s easy to access.
Hey there! I personally watch races on Redbull TV which is a free app and has all of the UCI XC and Downhill races. This is a great way to learn a lot about racing as the commentators do have some good information and simply watching the pros and observing them will teach you a ton. Also, we have a couple race analysis videos that we did a couple months ago:
YouTube is full of GoPro first-person camera views of races. Mute the sound and play your music of choice, TR minimized to the bottom. Some have overlays with power and speed, but that’s not absolutely necessary. You might even be able to find vids of your next race, even if it’s not your category, it’s better than nothing!
I watch cycling on NBC Gold. It’s $50 a year and includes road, cyclocross, MTB and track. I’m doing a mid-volume plan and there is enough content there to watch it during every ride. I watched every minute of racing in this years TDF from my trainer, it took about 3 months to watch all the stages from beginning to end. The good thing about the long stage races is that not a lot happens such that if you can’t think straight for 3 minutes at a time due to VO2 intervals, you won’t have missed anything (at least nothing they won’t replay several times).
I haven’t made any playlists, but here are some YouTube posters with various races I sometimes watch:
Again, if you’re prepping for a specific race, try to find a first person video of it. It works really well if there is, for example a 3 minute climb each lap and you are doing 3 minute intervals. Worst case, you can pause the video during your rest intervals and only play it during the ‘on’ intervals. So you pretend being on an attack, bridging a gap, trying to summit a hill with the leaders, whatever.
I’ve climbed the Stelvio so many times in the last few weeks that I will know every twist and turn on that glorious day when I finally get to do it for real.
I also recently found a good one of the loop around Tahoe which is another on my list to ride.
I’ve got a YouTube playlist loosely setup here with a bunch of these, including some epic famous rides in Europe, (alp d’huez etc) in case anyone wants to grab it. A lot of these are fromBike the World, all I can say is if this is one guy, he’s a lucky SOB.
There are a ton of POV crit races on YouTube. GoProing local races and even rides is fairly common. There are also bunch of US domestic pros that post race footage too but don’t discount the random Cat 3 or 4 races . I’ve even had luck finding actual races I want to do and preview the course on the trainer and even found a few race videos with me and my friends in them! YouTube feeds you videos based on your viewing habits so watch a few cycling videos and your feed will start filling up with cycling videos.
And - another vote for NBC Gold. That gets you a year’s worth of World Tour races to watch. That probably accounts for 90% of my on the trainer viewing.
I have to agree. While training, sometimes pretending to hang onto someone’s wheel in a race with the footage running helps me get through that next interval.
I made my own playlist of videos I found on Youtube: null - YouTube
It’s a little repetitive watching it a few days a week but, honestly the music is pretty good and when I’m paying attention to the power numbers and breathing heavy I barely notice that I’ve seen the vids a bunch of times.
-Hugh
. I’ve even had luck finding actual races I want to do and preview the course on the trainer and even found a few race videos with me and my friends in them! YouTube feeds you videos based on your viewing habits so watch a few cycling videos and your feed will start filling up with cycling videos.