How to watch Olympic mountain biking this Sunday & Monday

They have multiple channels, and an on demand streaming service. It’s not beyond them to show two things at once, you’d think if it was good enough for Glastonbury it would be good enough for the Olympics. Discovery+ are still showing the post-race analysis so at least someone is getting it right.

Discovery+ (well, Disney, who own them) signed a billion dollar deal with the IOC to have rights to show everything. all the time. The Beeb have a much more restricted deal and can show two broadcast streams at any one time. So that’s going to bring issues when they have to switch those streams between channels at inopportune moments

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/cjk3vkpxz1po

To add, as an XC racer myself (even if I’d still be going round that course half an hour after the medal ceremony), if I were Koretzky there I’d not be pointing fingers. I’d be beating myself up for letting a faster line open up (done that before!), but not blaming myself or the other rider for that incident.

Is there any chance that racing like that might make MTB racing a bit more acceptable for any of the mainstream broadcasters?

Pointless seeing as WBD have the WC rights for the next 10 years

Pidcock got a lot more cheers on the podium than I thought he’d get from the crowd.

Just need him to win the road race now – that’d be something extraordinary.

Is there any chance that racing like that might make MTB racing a bit more acceptable for any of the mainstream broadcasters?

The Olympics is a weird one – people watch it because it’s the Olympics, not because they have any interest in the sport in question. Witness for example the Curling at the Winter Olympics in Beijing when half the nation stayed up ridiculously late cos GB were in the gold medal match. No-one cares about curling or even understands it but everyone stayed up to watch it!

However if you put curling on the TV as a standalone sport, the viewing figures would be nearly non-existent. And it’d be the same with most of the sports in the Olympics.

The exception is football which everyone watches normally and no-one bothers about the Olympic football cos it’s kind of meaningless against the World Cup.

Great race and really feel for VK… Personally I’m not a TP fan tbh but what a ride back after the puncture. I guess the French broadcasters got the VK interview.

French win teh Tracksuit style war and I quite like the high waist brown trouser blouson beret look…

Witness for example the Curling at the Winter Olympics in Beijing when half the nation stayed up ridiculously late cos GB were in the gold medal match.

Yeah I get that, but at no time has curling been that exciting for such a prolonged period of time, surely?

I’ve only seen the BBC’s 1 minute something highlights but VK can have no complaints about that, if it wasn’t happening there, it was happening before the finish as the speed differential was huge. They weren’t even in the same race.

Discovery+ (well, Disney, who own them)

Thanks, was stating the same yesterday about the lack of BBC coverage on iplayer and knew there was a reason but couldn’t remember from last time.

Corrections corner though, Discover is owned by Warner Brothers not Disney

https://x.com/YntoTheRide/status/1817922512035917834?s=19

Shows the incident before Tom goes round.

So the tree jumped out in front of VK before TP got to him?

Oops!

Speeder

Full Member

I’ve only seen the BBC’s 1 minute something highlights but VK can have no complaints about that, if it wasn’t happening there, it was happening before the finish as the speed differential was huge. They weren’t even in the same race.

You couldn’t be much wronger so I’m assuming the highlights weren’t the best for showing but Koretzky had skinned Pidders, slid out on some gravel so was back level but had far more in his legs it seemed. If it had come to a sprint I’d not have been backing TP.

had far more in his legs it seemed

Except when Pidders did pass him he went on to win with a 9sec margin. Someone with more in their legs would have closed that down.

If it had come to a sprint I’d not have been backing TP.

Maybe so, but the race is not won by deciding who might have won in a sprint, or who might have had more in their legs at the end.

Koretzky lost his pedal and they were so close to the finish he wasn’t chasing it back. But when Tom tried to attack him as they went together up the hill just before the last descent Koretzky put a couple of seconds into him, he appeared to be suffering from the effort of shutting down the big gap. Pidders had to make that move stick, he wasn’t winning a sprint.

Except when Pidders did pass him he went on to win with a 9sec margin. Someone with more in their legs would have closed that down.

Did you watch it? He lost half of that straight after the clash as he lost most of his momentum, had to clip back in etc etc. He lost the other half in the role into the line when he knew he’d lost and backed off.

Anywhere to watch it back, had asked the wife to record it but we didn’t realise there was a channel switch.

They weren’t even in the same race

Might want to watch more of that last lap.
With out the two errors it might at best have at best been a sprint with Pidcock in second wheel
If pidcock had closed down that gap and it went to a sprint, my money would’ve been on Koretzky

Amazing, amazing race.

I watched on eurosport yesterday and they missed the PFP attack due to an ad break. Watched on the BBC today and they missed the TP puncture due to a channel swap. Both channels ballsing up at keys times.

Anywhere to watch it back?

Iplayer as “bbc two lunch” and then “bbc one afternoon” or discovery+ as a whole race.

There’s short highlights on BBC iPlayer, 12 mins or so

There’s a few different highlights vids on YouTube too.

The YouTube highlights don’t really capture the chase back on, worth watching the full iPlayer coverage of the chase if you can

Discovery plus currently £3.99 worth it for this race alone.

Koretzky tried to block Pidcock and it went wrong as Pidcock got ahead. I suspect if he had stayed on Pidcocks wheel he might have been able to out drag him as Koretzky looked mighty all race, but he slipped and lost all momentum.

It was an outstanding race, really gripping stuff. Proper drama, well worth watching all of it if you can.

BBC highlights is terrible. Missed it live as was in a meeting.

Very very pleased for Tom!

Did you watch it?

Live, and again on catch up. Did you watch it?

He lost half of that straight after the clash as he lost most of his momentum.

Someone with “more in their legs” would have been chasing Pidcock down to re-pass him rather than giving up nearly a minute from the finish.

From what I could see, there were clearly two lines available where Tom went for it, so completely legitimate to use it. By the time the trails met again he was slightly ahead, also pretty much as far left as he could be. Koretzky then steered in to try and block him (he had space on his right so didn’t need to do that), realised Tom was already ahead and going faster, then pretty much gave up from there, possibly partly from a pedal issue but I think once he saw Tom powering ahead he knew the game was up.
Completely legitimate riding from Tom Pidcock in my opinion. If there had been a penalty it would have been against Koretzky for trying to cut in.

Totally legit.

And absolutely shameful from the Frog crowd booing.

Someone with “more in their legs” would have been chasing Pidcock down to re-pass him rather than giving up nearly a minute from the finish.

Then you did see the distance he’d have had to close down to get on the wheel right?
To then out sprint Pidcock after that additional effort would be astonishing.

I’d suggest that sometimes riders know when the task in insurmountable.

To my eye, two lines either side of the tree, and at that point Pidcock was absolute full gas for the corner and had a wheel in front. Even at level, his was the inside line and no reason to yield that because Koretsky was trying to hit the same line, that’s only a consideration if Koretsky was in front. Even then to avoid contact Koretsky would need a clear gap or for Pidcock to back out and on the second last corner of the Olympics, that ain’t happening. So Koretsky tried to take Pidcock’s line for me, made contact, and came off second best. There was no complaint, I think he knew he’d messed up the line choice. If it had gone the other way and Koretsky had put Pidcock off, I think there might have been grounds then for a complaint.

I’d suggest that sometimes riders know when the task in insurmountable.

Don’t know if you don’t try. Had the contact damaged his mech and when he tried to shift he’d have unseated his chain, whatever…… it’s never over until the portly woman has commenced her repertoire.

Would being 40s back with 2 laps to go count as insurmountable 😉

A similar ending for the Worlds at GT for Tom as well – bit of a coming-together and he rides off to victory…

I popped round a mate’s house and he had the MTB race on the telly. It was just on in the background as we chatted, but the last few minutes were very exciting! Great overtaking move up the inside from Pidcock; Senna/Verstappen style. The French rider can’t have any complaints; it’s racing and you have to be on the lookout for such a move. Pidcock holds his line, he has nowhere else to go, and Koretsky veers left into Pidcock.

Watching that has made me want to get back on an MTB, after years away. Sport is wonderful.

Would being 40s back with 2 laps to go count as insurmountable 😉

Not just that but, as he himself said, for the next two laps he made absolutely no dent in that gap then suddenly over just half a lap he gained 15 seconds and suddenly it was all possible.  It was a fantastic example of just never giving up for a second

I suspect all the hoo-hah about that pass is generated because the BBC commentary was from a retired golf/tennis pundit whose whole credentials for bike racing is watching a bit of Formula 1 on the telly.

And what mech was Pidcock using?  I’ve seen a picture of him holding up his bike with what looks like a gear cable sticking out of it.

Edit – just seen it’s XTR Mechanical.

All that hoo-hah about the overtake is simply because many people only see two XC races every four years.

The proportion of armchair experts with zero knowledge of the rules, let alone racing experience will be far higher. Same goes for the home public at the venue; you’ll have a larger amount of clueless punters, painted up and waving flags who won’t (and didn’t) keep it classy if their guy gets pipped to the post.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/it-was-part-of-racing-victor-koretzky-gracious-in-olympic-mountain-bike-defeat-after-last-lap-clash-with-tom-pidcock/

“I think it was part of racing. We all want the goal and we all fight for the goal. That’s racing. We fought to the finish,” Koretzky said, gracious in defeat.  

“After his puncture he showed everyone he was on form today. I lost my opportunity, but I think I played my own chance to the end. I can be happy about that.

“I got a gap but then went off the track and so he caught me again. Then he overtook me in the forest. I didn’t know he was on the left; he touched me and touched my shoes, and then I almost crashed.”

I think Koretzky’s got the last word on whether the pass was a problem or not.

Looking at it, and this crash –

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/video-the-mistake-that-cost-a-gold-medal-in-the-olympic-mens-mountain-bike-race.html

I think Koretzky was paying for his last attack. He looked strong but it must have really taken it out of him and he’d started to make mistakes – slipping on a corner, picking the wrong line where he was overtaken. It’s a familiar story to anyone that’s ridden a bike hard for a while. Eventually fatigue starts showing in your decisions and technical riding as well as in your legs. He must have given it a million percent effort to try and get gold – good on him.

I popped round a mate’s house and he had the MTB race on the telly. It was just on in the background as we chatted, but the last few minutes were very exciting! Great overtaking move up the inside from Pidcock; Senna/Verstappen style. The French rider can’t have any complaints; it’s racing and you have to be on the lookout for such a move. Pidcock holds his line, he has nowhere else to go, and Koretsky veers left into Pidcock.

I thought Koretzky was more like Verstappen.  turning into the apex regardless as to whether someone is there or not. 😉

The cut-out in this picture shows what @theotherjonv says. Pidcock is not only in front but he’s on the far left of the trail and is turning left.