Video: Elite Finals Highlights from the Fort William DH World Champs 2023
If you missed the live coverage from the 2023 Downhill World Championships at Fort William you can catch up on all the action-packed racing below.
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I skipped this race because I canceled the subscription in July (didn't want to pay because there were no races) and I couldn't be bothered to renew.
But I was even more bothered when they were up in the highlands, no viewers around, drone/heli 100 feet in the sky and they started to pump in heavy breathing sounds in the dead silence of the open mountains as if he's on a Peloton trainer in your living room.
GOD AWFUL!!!!
Oh, and gonna post this more than once. If you're logged into GCN+ & there are no World Champs videos, you gotta use VPN. Log out of your browser. Log out of GCN+, pick a Euro country on VPN, open your browser, log in to GCN+ & BOOM. World Champs.
Rather than pop up a "geo-block" notice on screen if you're in the wrong country, GCN+ simply shows a blank screen. VPN active, all the videos for finals are all there.
I bought GCN+ so I could watch the World Cup races in Canada, BUT the World Champs were only available from a different streaming service!?
The World Champs broadcast rights are and haven’t been auctioned off separately from the World Cup broadcast rights
Pick Germany on your VPN then log back into GCN+.
Juniors, Womens & Mens World Championship Finals all are on GCN+.
That's why I was posting multiple times about it. People that are geo-blocked on GCN+ aren't TOLD and there is no "blocked in your area" warning. It's just a blank screen.
When you log back into GCN+ on a VPN using an authorized country, ALL World Champs cycling events, even BMX pop up on screen and are watchable.
youtu.be/n-Bo0rEjazQ?t=11
But you can't hear it every time b/c Needles on the UCI recap is screaming over it.
On the GCN+ broadcast with Cunningham & Neil Donoghue, in the women, every single rider, every single lander on the lower half..."splat".
Once you noticed it....you couldn't ignore it.
Didn't matter if they landed perfectly on transition or rear wheel cased a lander ...."splat"
But in the US, for example, Redbull never had those rights as far as I can recall. You had to pay for Flo or NBC Sports or GCN+.
My point was that the rights to broadcast World Champs has always been auctioned off separately from the rights to broadcast World Cups. That has not changed.
www.redbull.com/gb-en/events/uci-mountain-bike-world-championships-les-gets-all-languages
"You are from Albania, France, Slovakia, Sweden or UK? Please watch the stream here." Which took you to this page;
www.redbull.com/gb-en/events/uci-mountain-bike-world-championships-en
The reason I'm 99% sure is that my brother contacted me immediately after the race to say he'd watched on the BBC and I said I'd also watched, but with much better commentary.
As far as I know we were always able to watch Worlds on RBTV in the UK, I don't ever remember it being blocked.
I didn't mean to question you before by the way, was just going off my hazy memories of last year.
I probably owe @redrook an apology too!
I quite liked Neil Donohue, lacked a bit of energy maybe (classic Neil) but he had some good insights at times.
By that point, the BBC surely already had their announcers lined up, contracted, briefed, and ready to go with direct deposit set up. Would have been rather rude to boot one of them off at that point (regardless of how great it wild have been to have Rob in the booth)
All I know is what I saw on BK's video, I think RW said he had contacted the BBC to offer to do it for free, I wasn't sure at the time if he was just joking anyway. I think a mate said he had posted something about it on Instagram too but haven't seen that.
That was laughable and I owe that person an overbearing apology: UCI completely blows
This DH season has me scratching my head even though I watched the first three races. Started insanely late, ends in what could be snowstorms, and if UCI / discovery "wants to bring mountain biking to the world" why are they paywalling it behind obscure platforms and not including all the races? People who don't already know the sport are not going to access it this way - This format cannot possibly be drawing hundreds of thousands or even 1 million new viewers when it's losing the core audience
I subscribed to GCN the day of the first race to try and minimize subscription cost, and after a month of no racing - only to get punked by world champs not being shown on GCN - I canceled. I even tried subscribing to a VPN to try to watch world champs but no matter what I did, I could not watch this race, so a minute and a half of "highlights" is a slap in our faces
I hate to abandon watching world cup downhill I don't see any other option, these f*cking idiots have made it unwatchable, uninteresting & pathetic. Please go & burn UCI. You have taken something amazing and wonderful and turned it into total garbage
None of this is for the pros, the sport, the spirit, or even the fans – this is just to try and make money. They can all go f*ck off
now.
Rather than pop up a "geo-block" notice on screen if you're in the wrong country, GCN+ simply shows a blank screen. VPN active, all the videos for finals are all there.
Seeing Kolb's reaction when he got down the hill in 2nd is worth any setup hassle - so great to see a guy be genuinely happy for a fellow racer.
Now why UCI doesn't want anyone else to see that is beyond me...
Also there seems to be GMBN and UCI showing the same shit with different commentary (both poor).
For the past ten years or more it's been possible for tight c*nts like me to view a decent broadcast legally and free. Now it's not.
Rather than pop up a "geo-block" notice on screen if you're in the wrong country, GCN+ simply shows a blank screen. VPN active, all the videos for finals are all there.
@Bigricko89 gotta log out of your browser & GCN+ then log back into both AFTER you turn VPN on.
Picking Germany worked for me.
Rob was - is - the shit and he cannot be duplicated or replaced. The fact that no one's even trying to get close is confounding. What the actual f*ck is going on here? The racers are going w /the flow - fine, they're pros. This coverage and the whole plan is total garbage. This is what Greed X Idiocy looks like.
Not saying it's great, or VFM, but it should be there.
It just needs a Warner option now and we're getting somewhere.
@blowmyfuse "Luckily" us UK folk don't need to use VPN to see the stream. Just need to muck about with the audio.
It literally sounded like someone smacking a trash bag of water. What made me realize it was fake was it repeating identically every single jump and then a girl back wheel slapped the ground and then the front wheel slapped, but there was no "splat" "splat"...just one "splat". After that...I couldn't not hear it every single racer.
noticed that they were piping in the heavy breathing sounds with Brook McDonald but then they turned it up LOUD for Bruni & were talking him up.
There were no cameras or anything near the riders up on the open highlands.
Riders were FLYING but you didn't hear a rock ping or gravel scrape yet you're hearing heavy breathing from Bruni. That's why I said it sounded like a guy on a Peloton stationery bike.
All while being filmed from a drone 60-80 feet up in the air.
That f*cking garbage-bag-with-a-stick slaps & fwaps was easily the single most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Several of them were even mid air.
Whoever came up with should have to be literally tarred & feathered
Reminded me of that sound .
I love the "porn sex" slap description someone dropped, had me crying
But close browser, VPN to the right country, open GCN+ & all of the content is readily watchable.
First time I've seen a video provider simply make the screen a "ghost" for geo-restricted countries.
Usually they say it's geo-restricted as you click on dead links furiously.
Please wake the f*ck up and stop ruining our sport.
Sincerely- everyone who loves racing and bikes.
Rather than pop up a "geo-block" notice on screen if you're in the wrong country, GCN+ simply shows a blank screen. VPN active, all the videos for finals are all there.
What more do you want?
Rather than pop up a "geo-block" notice on screen if you're in the wrong country, GCN+ simply shows a blank screen. VPN active, all the videos for finals are all there. Pick Germany for VPN
This coverage sucks balls ! I don’t need a VPN tutorial but thanks muchly
Most people didn't realize it was on GCN+ b/c of the way they didn't even show a screen to say it was blocked.
They just showed a page saying Worlds.
The only way I see an alternative series realistically working is if the riders all move en-masse. Involving the team at RedBull could be way to smooth the transition to something new.
The riding this year has been amazing, but the production / delivery of it has been a piss take. Shameful.
Highlights as if made by a 4-year-old child.
Also Race highlights - Czech Downhill Top On Trail Cup Ještěd is a steamer somewhere else and almost with a minimal budget.
Rather than pop up a "geo-block" notice on screen if you're in the wrong country, GCN+ simply shows a blank screen. VPN active, all the videos for finals are all there.
Rather than pop up a "geo-block" notice on screen if you're in the wrong country, GCN+ simply shows a blank screen. VPN active, all the videos for finals are all there.
Rather than pop up a "geo-block" notice on screen if you're in the wrong country, GCN+ simply shows a blank screen. VPN active, all the videos for finals are all there.
WARNING: Dire commentary
Rather than pop up a "geo-block" notice on screen if you're in the wrong country, GCN+ simply shows a blank screen. VPN active, all the videos for finals are all there. Pick Germany for VPN
Replay here;
tiz-cycling.io/categories/mountain-bike-world-championships-2023