Something small that tickled me was seeing Pierron drinking water from an unbranded normal bottle whilst on the podium and wearing his monster hat

Didn’t see it here so thought I might as well put it up, you know how helmet cams usually make it flatter.

Not Pierron’s run it didn’t!! Make sure you watch in full screen on YouTube

Was it just me who thought there was something a bit off with the coverage? There just wasn’t any sense of speed or didn’t show the technical difficulty for me, can’t quite put my finger on it but thought they might not have got the camera placements right, even when the riding was on the edge it just all felt a bit tame.

I said the same while watching.

Some of the raw footage from quali/practice captured it much better.
One thing that really irritates me is when they zoom in on the rider and you can’t see the track.

Mostly I think it was the camera placement though. The one good camera was on that boulder drop. The long zoom foreshortened the gap between the features so it looked pretty full-on.

The footage for the race is never perfect it’s just the nature of having a limited amount of fixed cameras and the complication of running a live broadcast with multiple riders on track at the same time.

I always watch the build up with all the track analysis especially Cathro and Vital Raw. You see all the parts of the track that will be missing from the live feed and get a much better appreciation for the bits you can see that have been flattened by the camera angles.

I think this is the last season of Red Bull coverage, so the new providers might provide a better track view (presumably for a subscription fee).

I’d pay money to keep it as it is and watch it on Redbull if we had that choice. It’s really gone from strength to strength and the racing itself gets better every year. I really can’t see Discovery coming from nowhere to massively improve it and I can imagine the audience dwindling away.

Perfect time for someone with the means and ability to do a Chris Ball and launch a worldwide DH racing series with no UCI involvement.

Definitely! I’ve no idea what the viewing figures are now compared to say, 7-8 years ago but Rob Warner in particular has taken it up a gear. Be a shame if Discovery were to change that, I think his deal is with Red Bull exclusively, so I hope they can work something out.

You’re right though, a series away from the restrictions of the UCI would be very interesting.

I remember that the owner of Freecaster threatened to start his own DH series when Red Bull stepped in and the UCI took away his baby in exactly the same way they just sold it to Discovery.

I don’t think he could have competed at the time but the Discovery paywall might make all the difference. Red Bull have built a global audience for DH racing and a significant portion of those viewers are about to disappear. How many manufacturers will continue to pour money into racing when the whole circus is hidden away from view?

Anyway, this is probably for a whole different thread.

Lourdes was an amazing start to the season. Bring on Fort Bill!

Lourdes was a great start and that Pierron onboard is incredible, looks sped up!

I shall be there at Fort Bill, can’t wait.

Yeah, so glad to see Pierron on fire after a couple of years with some pretty horrendous injuries. He could have easily disappeared into the middle of the pack for a while.

To me he looks like one of the fastest riders we’ve ever seen, certainly from the era of modern bikes with big wheels. He’s another Sam Hill or Aaron Gwin. I bet some of the other riders are scratching their heads when he puts down a run like that which has a few mistakes but is still visibly faster than everyone else.

I really can’t see Discovery coming from nowhere to massively improve it and I can imagine the audience dwindling away.

bit early really, at least give them a go to show what they can do before starting the criticism?

bit early really, at least give them a go to show what they can do before starting the criticism?

I think if they know everyone is just itching to hate them before they even start it’ll make sure they’re focused on offering an improvement over Redbull.

I’m not criticising anyone yet and I hope it’s amazing because I love watching it. I just can’t see any upsides yet for either the viewers, the participants or the accountants who ultimately decide if it’s still worth turning up.

It’s not like we can judge them on their previous efforts so it’s a total unknown until they either completely nail it or absolutely ruin it.

I do believe that the vast majority of current viewers won’t even pay the cost of entry to find out.

In the hunt for a silver lining I just checked the Discovery Channel’s current productions..

100 Days Wild
Aaron Needs a Job
Alaska: The Last Frontier
Alaskan Bush People
All on the Line
American Chopper
Bad Chad Customs
BattleBots
Bering Sea Gold
Cal Fire
Cash Cab
Contact
Deadliest Catch
Deadliest Catch: Bloodline
Diesel Brothers
Dino Hunters
Dirty Jobs: Rowe’d Trip
Dirty Mudder Truckers
Driven
Dodgeball Thunderdome
Dual Survival
Expedition to the Edge
Expedition Unknown
Expedition X
Fast N’ Loud
Finding Escobar’s Millions
Frontier
Getaway Driver[2]
Gold Rush
Gold Rush: White Water
Growing Belushi
Guardians of the Glades
Homestead Rescue
I Quit
The Impossible Row
Jeremy Wade’s Dark Waters
Killing Fields
The Last Alaskans
Legends of the Wild
Lost Relics of the Knights Templar
Man vs. Bear
Masters of Arms
Masters of Disaster
Misfit Garage
Moonshiners
Moonshiners: Master Distiller
Mysteries of the Deep
MythBusters
Naked and Afraid
Naked and Afraid XL
Outback Lockdown
Raising Wild
Reclaimed
River of No Return
Rob Riggle: Global Investigator
Savage Builds
Serengeti
Sticker Shock
Street Outlaws
Street Outlaws: Fastest in America
Street Outlaws: Memphis
Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings
Trading Spaces
Treasure Quest: Snake Island
Twin Turbos
Undercover Billionaire
Vegas Rat Rods
Vintage Tech Hunters
Wheeler Dealers
Why We Hate
You Have Been Warned

No mountain biking on there. If we can find a way to combine world cup downhill with the Alaskan wilderness and some kind of turbo charged rat rods built on a budget against a tight deadline while overcoming dramatic set backs, we might be onto something.

I do believe that the vast majority of current viewers won’t even pay the cost of entry to find out

A large chunk of them won’t even have the choice in many ways unless there’s an app.

I bet a decent chunk of them at under 23 years old and living with parents… if it’s on actual TV and a decently expensive subscription, they will get told “no” by parents.

I bet a decent chunk of them at under 23 years old and living with parents… if it’s on actual TV and a decently expensive subscription, they will get told “no” by parents.

TV Licence – £26.50 a month for the first 6 months (assuming you don’t have one already, like me), then spend the next 6 months trying to get the advance payment back. Or £41 per quarter.

Subscription – £6.99 a month.

So assuming 6 months of races that’s £123.94.

That’s not an insignificant sum and probably enough to put folk off, especially if it’s an unknown quantity.

 I just checked the Discovery Channel’s current productions..

You know that they own Eurosport, right? That channel with all the cycling on it?

Are discovery not the owners of gcn (so gcn+) and eurosport.

So in realty I suspect it won’t be on the discovery channel, but on one of their more cycling focussed subsidiaries. It might even be different according to region.

I don’t think they can be looking at downhill and thinking “that’s where the pay per view or subscriptions money is” it would make a lot more sense as part of a larger cycling focussed sports package.

I enjoy watching it because its free – no way would I pay to watch it. The numbers who would pay to watch are going to be tiny

The numbers who would pay to watch are going to be tiny

Most kids who’re into DH are watching it ‘cos their dads are into cycling/MTB. A good percentage of those folks already have a eurosport app sub to watch all the World Tour, Spring classic etc. I good subset don’t even pay for it as it comes free on their Sky/Virgin/BT subscription especially if they bought it to watch the footy, lots of folks have it as an extra on their Amazon Prime sub.

I think even if no one bought the app just to continue watching (which some folks obviously will), the audience numbers wouldn’t go down by that much just through people being able to see it coincidentally just because it’ll be on eurosport

I don’t think they can be looking at downhill and thinking “that’s where the pay per view or subscriptions money is” it would make a lot more sense as part of a larger cycling focussed sports package.

If I wanted to watch any of that other stuff, I would have the package already. But I don’t. So I don’t.

Most kids who’re into DH are watching it ‘cos their dads are into cycling/MTB. A good percentage of those folks already have a eurosport app sub to watch all the World Tour, Spring classic etc.

Citation please.

Most kids who’re into DH are watching it ‘cos their dads are into cycling/MTB. A good percentage of those folks already have a eurosport app sub to watch all the World Tour, Spring classic etc.

I’m not a kid I’m nearly 40 and my Dad doesn’t pay for my subscriptions! I’m literally only interested in watching Downhill because I ride mountain bikes and spent my youth riding DH myself. I’m not a ‘cyclist’ and I’ve never heard of a spring classic so I’m not paying for it. Bundling it in with a load of roadie stuff adds nothing for me.

Discovery already own the broadcasting rights for the EWS since last year. Apart from managing to release the highlights package within 24 hours of the race finishing, they also started a live show for the new prologue stage, all free to air on YouTube. Who’s to say that they won’t do similar to DH with an embellished package on a gmbn/gcn channel for qualis and juniors?

Before the thread completely deteriorates into speculation about how Discovery are going to ruin downhill, I’ll just say, WHAT A RACE!

It’s hard to see how anyone can break the French dominance, it seems like it’s theirs to loose. Just looking at Daprela & Peirron, they truly put everything out there and risk crashing out! Loic seems a bit more calculated and I think as the season progresses it’ll be him who floats to the top again. I’d like to see Vergier hit his stride.

Outside of France, Luca, Finn & Danny Hart could break up the party a bit. Danny made some mistakes and had a crappy top section but still rolled in 6th. He’s got some speed.

Minaars result was a good one, reckon he could throw out a few more good results if the wind blows in the right direction.

In the women’s race it great to see such a good mix now rather then it just being the Atherton show. I’m hoping Nina Hoffman gets in the mix with the rest of them (because she’s in my Fantasy Team of course)

I reckon this could be one of the best seasons we’ll see (before those Discovery sharks and the UCI mess it up ;))