WC DH coverage have we reached a consensus.? 🤔

You can't even buy a pint for £6.99 in some places. It's a small price to pay to satisfy your curiosity.

shark attack it was more of a question about which if any had better coverage.

Discovery + was good for Lenzerheide

Disc+ didn’t seem any better or worse than red bull. Searching for the event and finding it was a bit painful just as it was with red bull, but the coverage was good, I enjoyed it.

Can’t compare to Gcn as obviously didn’t subscribe to both but thought it was fine. One thing the timings seem quicker and more accurate which is better than waiting for red bull who often seemed to struggle to have accurate live timings.

From what I saw last week it seemed ok. And it’s only going to get better as they do it more

Discovery was good. Happy with that. Will likely cancel post season.

Meh. What's Phillip Schofield up to now-a-daze?

Looks like the 25% Cyclo-cross Social Podcast discount GCN+ is still live - brings it down to £30 for the year.

I thought it was better. It was good to see more of the track and each run. I particularly like the drone shots and some of the wider shots that showed the speed and gradient well. There is room for improvement in the commentary but Rob Warner took time to learn his craft and I’m sure so will Cedric and Ric

I've taken the plunge and subscribed to Prime and then discovery plus. Watching the coverage now, although can't tune into live men's final. Do they do a replay of the live show tonight a la RedBull?

reece Wilson is a natural TV performer but surely he's a full time professional still so just a temporary commentator?

Is GCN a diff commentory team to that on Discover+? I've only watched via Discovery+ and had Ric and Cedric.

No, It's Ric and Ceric on GCN + as well.

After another round, I think my opinion is settling.

The commentary was poor IMO.

Ric was just repeating most of Cedric's lines, it felt like they were reading from a big book of downhill platitudes and they were worryingly slow on the uptake. I could see what had happened to Danny's front tyre about 5 secs before they finally clocked it.

Also the on-screen timing desperately needs the current fastest time displayed as each racer gets near the finish, so we can judge if they're gonna do it or not.

And the top 5 or whatever needs to be bigger, so we can see instantly where they've slotted in.

I'm watching on a big TV, must be horrible on a mobile device.

Do any of them have a highlights show worth watching?

I've not subscribed to anything yet as I've not been able to watch the racing live and hoped there'd be a Youtube highlights show worth watching.

GCN+ and Discovery are they different then?

Different cameras, timing graphics, but the same commentators? Or both exactly the same coverage?

Also, I haven't managed to watch any yet, on which one am I least likely to get spoilers if I search for the finals? 😋

I'm quite happy with my GCN+ subscription.  I just subscribed for the whole year as I wanted to use it for watching the TdF and the Giro as well.

I figured they might have some documentaries that are worth watching during the winter months as well.

After another round, I think my opinion is settling.

Yep, mine as well. I think it's at least as good as RedBull, and better in some places The camera coverage on both DH and XC tracks is better, especially the drone camera work on the Motorway section and the main DH section of the XC last weekend. I like the format, of the qualis and semis, and that it rewards consistency, and makes every one faster and faster on the hill. I don't mind Ric and Cedric and Bart, I think they're getting into their stride, Ric repeats himself a bit, but I'll cut him some slack until he's had a bit more practice, comparing him (with comparatively little experience) with Rob who'd been doing more than a decade with Red Bull and Freecaster is a bit unfair.

Also, I haven’t managed to watch any yet, on which one am I least likely to get spoilers if I search for the finals?

watching the full show of finals (top 10 women, top 30 men) you wont see the result being spoilt on GCN+ at least. This year you'll have to scroll through 7 road race highlights to find the mtb, which is a slight improvement over RB where there were random cliff diving, motorcross and rap battles to navigate.

Just as in the past, watch the women's first, as the commentators may or may not spoil the women's result during the mens race if they are partners/siblings/teammates/same nationality of whichever man is on screen.

Anyone who's yet to watch the men's final, you'll really notice Ric parroting Cedric now that I've pointed it out.

Yes they seem to have got more of each run on camera, but just to be fussy - I'd rather see the riding from a static camera than a drone or cable cam.

you’ll really notice Ric parroting Cedric

I think that Ric is trying to take what Cedric says and expand on it, but Cedric is just spouting meaningless cliches, so after repeating it suddenly finds he has nowhere to go. IMO Cedric is bringing no information or insight to the commentary that as an ex racer you would hope for, Ric is trying but needs a better co-commentator. He does fine with Bart in the xc, but then Bart has been doing it for years also, but in the xc Bart makes good points and Ric gets him to expand. In the downhill Cedric rarely makes any point on the racing that can be expended into a conversation to inform the viewer.

<p style="text-align: right;">Fwiw I've just cancelled my discovery plus sub thru amazon due to fact that no commentary! I had to watch the race runs with the final arena euro pap soundtrack which quickly lost its appeal. I'm sure they'll get their act together at some point but not giving Amazon money till it's sorted</p>

He does fine with Bart in the xc

i generally don’t watch much XC but had it on yesterday and noticed the commentary was better. Far more the commentator and expert someone mentioned earlier. Much easier on the ears

My on it hope is that they don’t experiment and bring in Pagey

I think that Ric is trying to take what Cedric says and expand on it, but Cedric is just spouting meaningless cliches, so after repeating it suddenly finds he has nowhere to go. IMO Cedric is bringing no information or insight to the commentary that as an ex racer you would hope for

Great comment, very perceptive.

I don't think that lets Ric off the hook though. They both seem awkward and lacking insight IMO.

It's just the wrong people for the job.

IMO Cedric is bringing no information or insight to the commentary that as an ex racer you would hope for

This is what I liked about Elliot Jackson - lots of detailed knowledge and explanations of interesting things that might otherwise be missed about the riding and certain features.

I seem to remember elliot jackson was pretty underwhelming to begin with but he grafted, spent a lot of time on the hill and chatting to racers and really worked on the craft. And brought a lot of insight.

gracia was commentating on the french feed for redbull wasnt he?

Anyway, i have nothing to say. I'm out of the game thanks to amazon

Elliot was pretty good, but I'd have chosen Tracy Hannah as co-commentator.

She was great at picking up little nuances in a rider's run, and her voice worked well.

Or Wyn Masters might have been brilliant at it, if they'd given him a try out.

gracia was commentating on the french feed for redbull wasnt he?

Yeah, so you'd think he'd be used to it by now. Also I want him to be good, simply because he endorses my bike (Production Privée) 😋

Anyway, haven't heard it yet, hopefully soon...

Weren't some people saying that the commentary wasn't enabled by default and you have to turn it on in the settings or something? I was probably going to go for Discovery+ too as I have Prime and it seems simpler to keep it together.

i generally don’t watch much XC but had it on yesterday and noticed the commentary was better.

Everything happens a bit slower and you've more time to talk about things. DH, you've go 3 mins to talk about interesting this about the racer, his/her timing, their bike, line choices, all the while looking for potential upsets - like Danny's flat.

Not easy.

gracia was commentating on the french feed for redbull wasnt he?

The problem could be that now not commentating in his own language he just can't form the sentences fast enough to share his knowledge, so ends up with just really basic statements. I am pretty sure I have seen him in some vids and his English was pretty good, but commentating on a live race is a whole different kettle of fish. As said above, action can come quite thick and fast on a downhill run, must be hard to have to translate your thoughts into a second language.

I was intending to pay to watch the finals this weekend but the commentary on the semi's really annoyed me so I went out instead. Nina Hoffman had a good run but lost 3-4 seconds on the final corner. They seemed to completely forget this for the subsequent runs when people were a couple of seconds back and then went faster at the finish. The mens was slightly better but there doesn't seem to be any consistency in the amount of a run they show with some riders getting barely any coverage. I'm definitely missing the key sector and virtual straight comparisons from Red Bull.

Nina Hoffman had a good run but lost 3-4 seconds on the final corner. They seemed to completely forget this for the subsequent runs when people were a couple of seconds back and then went faster at the finish.

this has always been the case. this week Rachel had a stunning top section/first split and then slowed. never mentioned when comparing times to the later riders.

doesn’t seem to be any consistency in the amount of a run they show with some riders getting barely any coverage

agree with this. dont know if its technical issues like with the drones, or somebody has decided we should see some finish line shots of the new hot seat occupant instead, but it seems unfair on the riders.

The problem could be that now not commentating in his own language he just can’t form the sentences fast enough to share his knowledge, so ends up with just really basic statements. I am pretty sure I have seen him in some vids and his English was pretty good, but commentating on a live race is a whole different kettle of fish. As said above, action can come quite thick and fast on a downhill run, must be hard to have to translate your thoughts into a second language.

Fabian Barel never had that problem 🙂 i know what you mean though though
Apropos of nothing,Gracia is one of my riding heroes. My mate was in the bike park at les gets years ago when a load of them were sessioning a large double, with lots of kids either joining in our watching. CG turns up on the start ramp back flips it first attempt to everyone's amazement

 

one things that pretty shit, is that even with the 'entertainment and sport' pass on Disco+, it wont let me watch DH highlights?

Is anyone else having this issue?

They aren't actually ruining my experience but they do miss an awful lot of important things don't they. Hopefully they will improve.

That said, for me, its worth £7 a month to watch the DH.

I think the overall coverage has been very promising so far - especially some of the extra camera shots. The commentary could be improved (and hopefully will with time) but I felt that a lot of the time with the RB coverage too. Not sure about the semi / final configuration - you get more racing on the day but it does dilute the excitement for me a little bit.

For those that asked previously, GCN+ does appear to have full semi and final race replays available.

For anyone looking to geek out over the stats, Pinkbike have really upped their post-match analysis this year.

Yeah I think the commentary team will get better as they go. It took time for Warner to get good once he wasn't allowed to just get pissed up with Pagey.

As mentioned above, they do seem to completely forget important things which happened just a few minutes before that would affect the split times. Think Ric is trying to squeeze his "Fun is fast and fast is fun" (whichever way round it is) catchphrase in at every opportunity, time will tell if it'll be as memorable as "Look at the time!" 😀

I think Cedric does give a bit more in terms of colour commentary than Claudio did, seems to do a better job of spotting if a rider has gotten off line and telling us what is going on where I think Claudio would do a Joe Rogan and just say "woooooah" a lot.

My only thing with the new format, is it's a bloody long day if you wanna watch it all. I was almost willing it to finish by the time we got to the top 10 men. Think I'll be a bit more selective and just watch the men and women's finals in future.

“ As mentioned above, they do seem to completely forget important things which happened just a few minutes before that would affect the split times.”

It’s crazy how bad they are at that! You’ve literally just watched someone go quickest despite messing up the last sector, then the next rider is just off the leader’s pace and they’re saying “how can they find a second at the bottom of the track?!”

It’s so rare for someone in the men’s to be quickest on all the sectors, but the benchmark is always whoever is in the hot seat, and how they achieved that time is fundamental to this kind of comparative time trial style commentating.

You’ve literally just watched someone go quickest despite messing up the last sector, then the next rider is just off the leader’s pace and they’re saying “how can they find a second at the bottom of the track?!”

Rob & Claudio used to do this sometimes as well, it was infuriating.

I can only hear the love child of Borat and Gru (Despicable Me, for those without kids). On coke.

It's unbearable.

I've been watching on Discovery + through Sky Q app. (comes free with Sky)

Its very clunky. It takes an age to find the mtb stuff in their menu system. The timings of finals were wrong so I went on at the time it suggested for the womens final to find it had already finished and the mens was starting.

Commentary is getting better, but they still are not as good as RW, and miss so much obvious stuff. They also appear to struggle to see when someone is riding fast or slow.

Camera angles were better at the last race, and I liked the interviews with riders whilst the event was live.

Overall not that much different than redbull, but that was free, and there is no shift in coverage to make me think its worth paying for.

Anyone know when or if Leogang DH is on Eurosport 1 or 2  (via Virgin TV).

Leogang XC has been shown but not DH, Lenzerhide DH was shown a couple of days late.

They also appear to struggle to see when someone is riding fast or slow.

TBF that's always been an issue, as most of it's down to perception as they've no real way of knowing what is fast. How many times did Warner and Claudio think something was up with Ratboy's bike or similar, only for him to be 3 seconds up at the next split? Or rider x is "flying through there" only for them to have lost loads of time.

Would be good if they could bring back some of the key section timing, the zone analysis and the virtual straights that red bull tv had as that gave the viewers and commentators some idea of where riders were faster. Discovery also really needs to do better with the feed to the commentators too, as we see a rider cross the line and show their placing and it seems like it takes a couple of seconds for the commentary team to react. It's very weird at times.

Me and the boy do laugh lots at "he's so fast through there..." "he's lost 3 seconds"...

😀