**This story has been updated on April 11 with a new option for Aussies to watch the racing.
With the first UCI Mountain Bike World Series event kicking off with the XC in Mairipora, Brazil, on April 12, there were plenty of questions about where to watch the World Cup in 2024 following the closure of GCN+ by parent company WB Discovery last year.
While the good ol’ days of the Red Bull TV broadcasts are well and truly behind us, GCN+ proved to be the ultimate subscription for cycling fans with basically all of the racing, from road to CX, MTB and even disciplines you’d never hear of. As someone who happily paid for GCN+ it was a great app.
Flow is happy to report that streaming service Stan has announced it will be carrying the UCI Mountain Bike World Series — seemingly by accident.
Related:
- Crash & Comeback | World Cup, Injuries and the UCI’s role in keeping riders safe
- What does it take to become a stop on the World Cup? | An inside look at Loudenvielle’s entry into the UCI MTB World Series
- The Best of the Best | How seasoned racers tackle a World Cup Track
Wait what happened to GCN+
In a video released back in December 2023, GCN presenters Simon Richardson and Daniel Lloyd announced the sudden closure of the app.
“This decision comes from our parent company Warner Bros Discovery and is driven by its global strategy to consolidate its streaming services, and to offer content in fewer places, making it easier for customers to access and discover more content,” said Lloyd.
“The reason for its closure is not because it didn’t work or it was underperforming, it’s that the media landscape has changed,” continued Richardson.
Putting our business hat on consolidating everything into one place does make sense provided that service is available across the markets that consume it. There are still different apps and subscriptions you’ll need depending on where you live, and unfortunately, those Warner Brothers Discovery platforms that the World Cup has been siphoned into are not available in Australia.
How to watch the UCI MTB World Series in Australia?
Australian mountain bike fans have been on an emotional rollercoaster trying to figure out how they can watch the racing in 2024 — as is evidenced by the comments on every single post the UCI Mountain Bike World Series has published in the leadup to the race in Brazil.
However, in an email newsletter from Stan Sport sent out on Thursday, April 11, sandwiched between the Super Rugby Aupiki and Women’s Six Nations was the info we have been waiting for — the UCI Mountain Bike World Series will be available live on Stan Sport from 1:15am AEST on Monday, April 14.
When this newsletter when out ther had been no official announcement from the UCI, Warner Brothers or Stan sharing this information — Flow reached out to all three the day prior to this email newsletter. This news comes after Stan had previously poured cold water on a rumour that had been circulating that it had the broadcast rights to the events. The Stan PR and the UCI have since officially confirmed the streaming service will have the World Cup mentioning both XC and DH — no word on Enduro.
At the time of writing, Stan has not been added to the Where to Watch section of the UCI website.
Stan has confirmed you will need the base subscription, which starts at $12 AUD per month AND the Stan Sport add-on, which is $15 AUD per month. This will give you access to the racing live and on-demand without ads and in HD and 4K. That’s a total cost of $27 AUD to watch the racing this year.
Unfortunately for our friends across the Tasman, Stan is not available in New Zealand and there is still no word on how our friends in South Africa and many other places can watch. We’re working on more details about how you can watch the racing. Stay tuned folks.
How to watch the UCI MTB World Series in the US and Canada?
Since we live in a global digital environment and the UCI has been almost as opaque for our overseas friends about how to watch the racing — or you’re looking for another way to watch the racing from Australia — it’s worth laying out what options are available for the folks who know their way around VPNs or Smart DNS.
In the US, all of the racing will be on MAX which starts at $9.99 USD per month. Initially, it was announced that you’d need the Bleacher Report sports add-on, but according to MAX delays with “tech-integration” mean they’re just including it for the time being.
For folks in Canada — or looking to make it seem as though they’re located in Canada — WBD just announced that FloBikes will be carrying the entire World Cup Season. Unfortunately, FloBikes don’t have the best reputation in North America, a “this content is not available in your region” error message is a regular occurrence with content listed in its catalogue. Given the announcement came straight from the UCI MTB World Series press team, it’s probably a safe bet. For folks based in the Great White North a FloBikes subscription is $29.99 USD a month, or $150 USD if you buy an annual subscription.
For our Canadian friends, please note that for whatever reason, FloBikes only lists its pricing in USD, so keep an eye on the conversion rate when you drop your credit card details in.
We should note that if you are using a VPN or smart DNS to circumvent geo-blocking restrictions — which, of course, we do not officially condone or advise — often these services will require a local bank card or credit card to sign up. There are of course ways around this and services that offer virtual cards which can be linked to a PayPal account.
We won’t detail those here, but they are easily found with a bit of time spent on Google.
To reiterate, we do not recommend going this route, but for those cavalier enough, it is possible.
How to watch the UCI MTB World Series in UK and Europe?
In Europe and the UK the races will be streamed via the Discovery+ app and Eurosport. It appears you’ll need the standard tier subscription to access the World Cup racing which costs £6.88 GBP per month.
While you can have a look around the Discovery+ app with a VPN set to the UK or much of Europe, you’ll need a UK or Euro bank card AND a UK or Euro phone number.
For folks aiming to spoof their location and make the robots think they live in the UK or Europe, it’s a bit trickier, but there are workarounds. Again, we won’t detail them here, nor will we encourage folks to go this route, but we also won’t pretend that the solution isn’t easily found on Google.
Photos: Bartek Wolinski / Red Bull Content Pool