Watching MTB racing online

Paul 8v

Not sure which section to put this in, are any of the big events ever televised and if so where would I be able to see them? I'm pretty spoilt for choice with road racing and even some cyclocross pop up on cycling fans.net from time to time but I haven't seen any mountain bike racing yet, do they ever show it?

Thanks

Paul

Barrelmaker

The DH world championships are shown live and on demand on redbull.tv. Its a good watch, i didn't think it would be but its surprisingly engaging.

rsh1960

Here's the link

http://www.redbull.com/uk/en/bike/stori ... ashes-reel

Paul 8v

Thanks, I'll check that out. Only XC I have ever managed to catch is the Olympic one. Is there just no demand for it?

bartimaeus

Redbull TV show the XC races as well as DH - and they have the 'replays' somewhere e.g. XCE at Hafjell, XCO from Val di Sole... but the DH is the most exciting in my opinion.

jimothy78

Can you get Red Bull TV on a "Smart" TV, or does it not work like that?

welshkev

jimothy78 wrote:

Can you get Red Bull TV on a "Smart" TV, or does it not work like that?

I guess so jim. I just put it on my laptop and connect it to the tv via HDMI cos i'm not rich enough to have a smart tv

bartimaeus

jimothy78 wrote:

Can you get Red Bull TV on a "Smart" TV, or does it not work like that?

As far as I can see you can get Red Bull TV on a Smart TV, but you don't seem to get all the programmes through the Red Bull TV app... or at least I could not find any way to watch the last World Cup DH. If anyone know how other than by connecting a laptop I'd be interested to know.

ddraver

Paul 8v wrote:

Thanks, I'll check that out. Only XC I have ever managed to catch is the Olympic one. Is there just no demand for it?

Yes, basically...I mean how many of your biking buddies could name the current XC World Champs (all of welshkev's, i know). We had a look at the numbers a few months back and basically the entire global world wide audience for MTBing (all disciplines)barely scrapes a million and is less than the UK only audience for an episode of Minder on ITV4.

That said the little tweet bar next to the screen is quite fun just because there are people of all nationalities involved

welshkev

ddraver wrote:

Paul 8v wrote:

Thanks, I'll check that out. Only XC I have ever managed to catch is the Olympic one. Is there just no demand for it?

Yes, basically...I mean how many of your biking buddies could name the current XC World Champs (all of welshkev's, i know).

nah, not xc anymore

but I did look the other day and was surprised that there wasn't a brit in the top 40 (I think) at hafjell

ddraver

I think they re all broken at the moment....

Annie Last is usually good for a solid 17th place

Paul 8v

ddraver wrote:

Paul 8v wrote:

Thanks, I'll check that out. Only XC I have ever managed to catch is the Olympic one. Is there just no demand for it?

Yes, basically...I mean how many of your biking buddies could name the current XC World Champs (all of welshkev's, i know). We had a look at the numbers a few months back and basically the entire global world wide audience for MTBing (all disciplines)barely scrapes a million and is less than the UK only audience for an episode of Minder on ITV4.

That said the little tweet bar next to the screen is quite fun just because there are people of all nationalities involved

Mind you, minder is on before the Cycling on ITV4, they could always replace it with MTB racing

But yeah, I get your point, I can't name any to be fair!

Thewaylander

I know alot of people who follow the Dh though.

I just don't think XC represents much like what what most people actually ride. DH to a degree seems closer to what i enjoy myself on the bike(though no where near as crazy of course).

Seen alot of interest in the gravity enduro melarky though.

EdW

jimothy78 wrote:

Can you get Red Bull TV on a "Smart" TV, or does it not work like that?

I have the Red Bull TV app on my smart TV & always used to be able to watch the DH world cup races, but it wasn't on there last weekend (so I had to watch it on my laptop). Maybe there was just a technical issue, there's another race on sunday so i'll try again then.

jairaj

My Samsung smart TV has a Red Bull TV app but I can only watch what they are showing live on their channel. Can't watch the pre-recorded stuff.

bartimaeus

Thewaylander wrote:

I just don't think XC represents much like what what most people actually ride. Seen alot of interest in the gravity enduro melarky though.

For me the XC courses are closer to what I actually *can* ride, but I can't say I have ever desired to ride like that (and definitely not dressed like that)... the course in Nove Mesto looked pretty tough to me, and my mates who rode the Olympic course said it was harder than it looked on TV.

But when you watch XC racing what you see appears to be a demonstration of supreme fitness rather than a test of skills... and without the tactics and drama of road racing.

Enduro, on the other hand, is how I would ride if I could ride that well... and DH is 'aspirational' in that I wish I could ride like that and I can imagine being able to ride like that, even though I know I probably won't ever do it. You can admire the skills and guts on display, and there's plenty of drama. That's what makes it exciting to watch... and Rob Warner's always good value.

ddraver

XC is definitely getting much closer to what people ride, good to see IMO