Goodbye Red Bull! Here’s to the Past 10 Years

In 2012 Red Bull got the broadcast rights for world cups, fast forward to 2022 and we’re entering a new era with Discovery.

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By identitizombie

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Goodbye Red Bull! Here’s to the Past 10 Years

Look at the time!!!

#ahte

“Stay on your bike Danny!”

…something about Danny having to wear his hoodie upside down…

2013 was one hell of a year for Stevie Smith. He dominated the season becoming the first Canadian to win an overall title in downhill. 2013 saw him get 3rd in Fort William, 2nd in Val di Sole, 4th in Vallnord, 1st in Hafjell, 1st in Leogang, and of course, 1st in Mont-Sainte-Anne.

The run in Mont-Sainte-Anne was WILD! He was back by a small margin but then put the power down to take the win. He’s still the only Canadian to win on home soil.

Did this get written before last weekend?

@Gribs: you beat me to it!

“He’s still the only Canadian to win on home soil.” – Finn Iles won 2 weeks ago there too

“Stay on your bike Danny!”

That was pre-RB, Champery 2011. Still worth a mention though as it’s “part 1” of Warner’s hoody comment from the weekend!

https://youtu.be/YfMQdFGTKAs

^^^ I hope so!

And we’ve still got Val Di Sole this weekend. One last hurrah, and all that.

One positive about the change, is that we’ve got until June to forget that it’s happening. June!!! Also, I watched some of the World Champs on the red button (the runs that Red Bull didn’t deem worthy of screen time), and I enjoyed Andrew Neethling as part of the commentary team. Maybe there’s a few former racers who could be involved in the new setup.

It definitely won’t be the same though. As much as RB are often slated, it’s been a pretty great thing having the races streamed for free, with Rob’s commentary being such an important part of it. It’s going to be a very hard act to follow, and I hope the new corporate overloads don’t ruin it.

Edit: Was referring to Gribs, took too long to type my response!

I don’t know about those in singletrack towers but I’m going to still watch the rest of the World Cup season before the broadcaster changes

Warner’s hoody comment

That was a lovely throw back to his more lively approach to his commentating duties!

Rob’s hoody comment was brilliantly judged. Inoffensive enough not to get him into trouble, but those in the know understood exactly what he was meaning!

It will bbe a very sad day when Rob W, Claudio and Bart move on. A great commentary team with enthusiasm and depth of knowledge from insider info.

End of an era.

since it’s the same group that now own GCN+ I wonder if they will still keep on the current commentators? It would be great if they did, can’t let all that knowledge go to waste as such

Whilst rob has been quoted as saying he’s staying with redbull which is true he’s not solely contracted to them so watch this space is all I’m saying 🤔

I hope Rob has a drink and goes full send in VDS. He’s got nothing to lose, unless he knows something we don’t.

Will be the end of an era. And of free to air coverage…..that’s going to be a massive loss. As will Rob, the voice of MTB.

However, is the coverage significantly different from 10 years ago? My one criticism would be they haven’t really evolved the coverage. It’s still Elite XC & DHI. No qualifying, no U23/Junior races…..

Standing still isn’t an option – which is why I guess the UCI has gone with Discovery/Eurosport; who will now do the whole lot. The sport needs to be bigger than it currently is, and bring in more sponsors/ money, etc

Will be the end of an era. And of free to air coverage….

I’m torn. I like watching the DH races but am not consistent enough in doing so (“I’m riding my bike” – sure) to merit paying for it. I don’t want / need to pay for more TV in my life.

The Reb bull commentary has been great and realy enjoy watching it. However the commentary on GCN+ for the World championships XCC race was terrible. Nearly as bad as the BBC when they do commonwealth and Olympic MTB coverage.

Really hope that they get some good commentators for next year otherwise I’ll stop watching, can’t listen to that for long periods.

I am not excited about having to pay for it, but in many instances red bull has been crap. The actual coverage is quite good, but the set up leaves a lot to be desired. (BBC are actually more woeful here, but red bull not much better)

1) Often race broadcast schedule is occluded or not posted until the last minute.
2) The replays take too long to be available and they don’t update the website enough.
3) No coverage of the womens Rampage, which sucks the big one.
4) They should give access to complete individual runs.

If discovery can keep the footage awesome with some good common-taters and make a shit hot user friendly offering I am all for it.

OK going to put this out there so I can figure out if I am as weird as my daughter now says I am. Everytime I watch that Danny Hart run, well when I say watch, it’s more listen, I get all emotional. Like I am in a very dusty room………………………just me? My daughter just thinks it’s funny commentary which I get but for me there is more.

Having it behind a paywall is going to end up with fewer viewers, so less coverage for sponsors and riders. How will the coverage improve if its not funded by an energy drink.

People new to the sport wont see it, or if they catch some some of it I don’t think they will pay for it. Most people are used to consuming this stuff for free already.

I worry that the lack of income / viewers will result in the teams spending less, or being asked to pay more to race, the race venues will be charged more.

Sure Red Bull could have been better, but it was free, so its pretty hard to moan about it.

It’s a real loss to see Red Bull, Bart & Rob go, the benchmark is set very high and will be very difficult to match.

Just burnt my damn rice watching that Danny hart vid 🤣

Agree – reducing viewers won’t help develop / expand the sport.
See other sports that have gone the same way (1st class cricket being the best example possibly)

It’s not wendyball where the ££ people are happy to waste is unfathomable.

Wow just seen this. As a Eurosport Player subscriber for several years (for the winter sports, road cycling and other randomness) I am excited that we could well be going full-circle! Reminds me of the days of trying to catch and record Eurosport coverage of the Grundigs with Mark Beiseigel on comms… Nevegal, Kaprun, dual slalom, Steve Peat’s first WC win from Snowqualmie Pass finally beating Nico V and the constant panic of the coverage being trumped by tennis!
Speaking of which I have about 10 VHS tapes of Grundigs in a box somewhere waiting to be digitised… I must get around to that at some point.