How to watch Olympic mountain biking this Sunday & Monday

Er the race has started on Discovery/Eurosport whilst BBC are still chatting rubbish!

BBC2, they got to the start literally as the horn blew.

I had both on, BBC is quite a bit behind.

Big Charlie Aldridge looking good. Pidcock with a soft start as usual, never seems to go all out from the blocks, rather builds into his race pace.

I’m watching on bbc2.

Is anyone on a hardtail that we’ve seen? Tends to work better for the slighter/smaller women, be surprising to see any today.

Also inteesting that the course designers have made the tech zone option slightly shorter than the course – hence the drama with Haley Batten yesterday… Shouldn’t the ‘pit lane’ always be fractioanlly slower than staying out!

Aldridge got a great start. TP in about 11th at the moment.

Erm throwing a T Bog in the olympics! Wow!

Thank god for iPlayer and being the only one in the office today!

How does anyone go down that big drop-off with a bottle in their mouth, without losing their front teeth?

There’s not a lot of headroom into that tunnel!!!

Because I prefer the commentators on Discovery that why.

Fair enough – neither great for me so the adverts is the casting vote

To see it on discovery I went to the Paris 2024 menu and it was showing Mountain Biking Live

Ah, thanks – I’ve been looking at their usual road & mtb pages

At least with the Discovery commentators they actually know who the riders are and how well they have been doing this season.

I think the drone footage has been a game changer for this sort of event.

So which way round are they? BBC has Pidcock at the front, Discovery says it’s Aldridge….

So which way round are they? BBC has Pidcock at the front, Discovery says it’s Aldridge….

Not sure the coverage is entirely 100% live, the different feeds seem to have different delays.

I’m currently (on BBC2) 25 mins into the race and it’s 13.35 UK time now. Pidcock in 2nd.

Pidcock in front.

Yep, he’s made the move!

French rider just about managing to stay with him, this should be a great battle!

BBC 2 on iPlayer seems about a minute or so behind the broadcast version.

I’ve flicked back and forth a little and Ric and Oli are far, far preferable to the BBC coverage!

Off to bbc1

WTF?! BBC2 just said “right, that’s it for coverage, swap to BBC1 to carry on watching” and now we’re back into Olympics intro shite.

Flat for pidcock!

AarrrrrrGggghhhh – iplayer has just died!!!!!

Slow pit stop. I did wonder why Puck Pieterse team didn’t use a drill for her wheel removal yesterday.

Come on BBC. If you are going to switch channels, make it seamless. So we miss Pidcock having a problem so that we can watch some adverts. Fantastic broadcasting!

Off to bbc1

For a crap intro cartoon and a crap chat from a presenter while we missed all the sudden drama.

At least the mechanics had power tools.

This front group has some big, big hitters now. This is gonna get good.

Puncture for TP, literally as the coverage cut from BBC2 to BBC1. He’s now 35″ down in 9th place.

and it’s back….

Ouch, What a crap place to get a flat just as he rolls up to the big-ish drop off.

 

He will be fuming with the pit crew…. Are they Ineos Grenadiers staff, or Team GB Staff?

Charie Aldridge is hanging on, having a great ride.

Was it a flat before the drop, or was it that he got chopped on the inside into it and then punctured on the landing? The replay showed what looked like a fairly nasty move by Koretzky…

Flat before the drop.

3 laps to go, TP up into 3rd at +36″

https://thumbsnap.com/vomGdLiD

 

 

Charlie sending it earlier.

 

That’s a win for me. He’s doing great!

Pidders with the bit between his teeth now – seems like a big ask to pull back nearly 40secs in 3 laps but if anyone can it’s him!

Down to 25 seconds behind

This is gonna come together, Pidcock is leading that little group back on. Shame Charlie has dropped off the back now.

He can see Hatherly now – won’t be long until he’s caught.

Getting close – the TP-led train of 3 is only 10″ off 2nd place now! Going to be a nail-biting final couple of laps.