NEWS 05.03.25
TV GUIDE SPECIAL: Many mountain bike superfans (and riders, companies, etc) were very vocally disappointed by the recent announcement that the MTB World Cup broadcast by Warner Bros Discovery is rocketing in price for UK audiences wanting to legally view the racing in 2025 as Eurosport merges into TNT Sports. Many commenters want to see the racing for free.
It seems fans’ cries have been partially but rapidly answered with a slew of free-to-view not-World-Cup event coverage. First, on 8 Feb, there was Red Bull Hardline in Maydena, Tasmania, with all the camera angles, on-screen graphics and, well, Rob Warners anyone could wish for (and high-level racing, of course).
The following weekend the camera turned to Christchurch, New Zealand, for the Crankworx Summer Series (different to the main Crankworx World Tour events) festival, with downhill, pumptrack and slopestyle broadcast around the world by Outside TV/Pinkbike.
Simultaneously, Queenstown, New Zealand, hosted a first Natural Selection Bike event – a spin-off of Travis Rice’s snowboarding freeride fest – with a massive course filled with jumps, hucks and tech stuff, somewhere between slopestyle and Rampage. Natural Selection was filmed and will be aired on Red Bull TV from 21:00 CET (20:00 UK time) today, Weds 5 March.
Last week, round one of the USA Downhill Southeast series was aired almost-live from Ride Rock Creek (Neko Mulally’s bike park). Meanwhile in Spain, the Shimano Super Cup race in Banyoles – a regular pre-season test for the world’s best cross-country racers – was beamed out live in its entirety.
Then on Sunday, the Red Bull Cerro Abajo street race from Valparaíso, Chile, threw riders down its infamously treacherous course, smashing sets of steps, pinging off walls, and often ending up in the dirt (well, the concrete dust). The whole race was broadcast live and for free, with Warner and Eliot Jackson calling all the action (tangent: there were about 15,000 fans watching the event on YouTube during the live stream; the replay now has 425k views).
This week, the first 2025 Crankworx World Tour event brings together many big-name pro riders in Rotorua, New Zealand, with downhill, pumptrack, slalom and slopestyle being televised on Red Bull TV from 7-9 March.
That’s all in the space of a month! Alright, most of the above was also broadcast in previous seasons, but we like to think something is spurring greater efforts to publicise one-off events, national series and festivals, leading to more incentives for event sponsors and pro riders. Popular uprising or all part of the plan?
Got news? Contact us and we’ll consider your story for a future newsletter. Any leads much appreciated.
