This had to be one of the most wild races of 2022. With the Rainbow Jersey on the line, riders put it all into one race for the UCI Downhill Mountain Bike World Championships 2022, but only two came across the finish line as newly crowned MTB world champions.— Red Bull
install Windscribe (Chrome VPN) with free option, set region to Germany, navigate to Redbull.tv, change language (bottom menu) to English, click through to live events/World Champs and you can see links to replays. Open replay and start playing, stop VPN (to not use the limited data) and enjoy. They only geo check for the page load, once it's streaming it will keep playing without VPN.
An "investigative" PB article would actually be helpful to understand the licensing etc. behind the geo-blocking and differences between world cup and world champs. Including statements from UCI and/or RedBull.
What a stupid way to stunt a sport thats trying to grow. Pissing off your core (microscopic) fan base for the lure of fringe eyeballs is absolutely baffling to me. Ive been watching the races since day one and Im even questioning if I should be loyal to this gong show.
Riders - start a union. Ditch the UCI and find a home that will support you…..and deliver a better (and safer) product.
@lastminutetech: agreed. Fellow Americans, had any of you ever heard of FloSports dot com before this week? What a load of garbage. Just let Red Bull stream it for chrissakes.
I would honestly pay RedBull TV a 1-time sub-$10 fee to watch, but I'm not paying FloBikes, whoever they are, for a single event that they've monopolized away from the rest of the World Cup series.
It's crazy that traditional broadcasters still don't realize that in the modern era, you need to make your product as easy as possible to consume. This goes for most all products but especially video. The younger generations will just watch something else on YouTube or TikTok, much less BS to still be entertained.
Race day Moi Moi TV is online. Haven’t watched it yet, but it’s 100% better than this geo block grey screen, that’s for sure. Moi Moi bringing it to the fans for EWS and DH. Good one, Gary!
Mountain Biking is huge in Sao Tome, Djibouti, Dem. Rep. Of Congo, and Kuwait so It makes perfect sense. I heard the sport is growing in Iraq too. They are simply targeting the key customer demographic.
I don't know the full story. But I know that in some countries, broadcasters have paid the UCI to get exclusive broadcasting rights, so people who want to watch it will have to go to their paywall. That is why Redbull is not streaming in those countries, they are not allowed. It is also why so many African and Asian countries get Redbull streams, there is not a big enough fanbase there for a broadcaster to pay. I suspect (but do not know) that Redbull only streams to countries without paying broadcaster, or maybe there are some countries with a broadcaster that didn't buy exclusive rights. What doesn't make sense to me is why the UCI doesn't sell the disciplines separately. Because for example in NL, the broadcaster that bought the rights didn't even show the downhill or xcc. There was an internet stream, but no TV for the XCO. They mainly bought the rights for the road race, which draws many viewers in NL and is broadcast live on stream and TV.
whats the reason to block canada and the states ? uci is alwas been garbage for mtb there road bike idiots running mtb the mtb community should get together to put there own association together it be so much better i remember racing dual slalom in the early 2000's and i was wearing a protec skate helmet and they said it wasnt safe so i had to borrow a little shitty stirofoam xc helmet make complete sense ?
how nobody is talking about that bright green button on Loic's bars is beyond me. surely that electronic lockout / tune switch or whatever is what heloed him win by huuuge margin
No Rob commentating is gonna be f*cked anyways!!!! GOOD f*ckING LUCK replacing that commenting god.It will never be as exciting without him(IMO). Very sad
Usually if an event isn’t available there’s some mention of how to watch it elsewhere. If I where a sponsor I’d be pissed that several huge markets can’t see my riders compete in that atmosphere. WTH Pink Bike? Give me my outside plus money back.
@pisgahgnar: i think you need to reread. I didn’t blame them for UCI’s greed, I blamed them for not including viewing alternatives for those of us locked out.
@Bondseye007: There are not alternatives unless the rights owner in your country provides replays. Pinkbike already posted the article about using VPN's last week.
@HeatedRotor: no no no I have been here a long time, its not even about the country lock. Pinkbike was just better back in 2012, better community, no paywalls, no comment section full of bitching (which even I can no longer avoid) You had to be there.
@Tannerstolt: i get it, The community for sure was better back then. Now its full of whingers who can hardly ride by get upset about .5 of a deg for seat angle.
70 Comments
This one is better
Riders - start a union. Ditch the UCI and find a home that will support you…..and deliver a better (and safer) product.
Super Bruni for President.
What doesn't make sense to me is why the UCI doesn't sell the disciplines separately. Because for example in NL, the broadcaster that bought the rights didn't even show the downhill or xcc. There was an internet stream, but no TV for the XCO. They mainly bought the rights for the road race, which draws many viewers in NL and is broadcast live on stream and TV.
Seriously. Why post this? Just to rub it in and piss us off?
You had to be there.
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