2022 pro gravity schedule

NJ-XC-Justin

KY-DH-Freddy
New year new thread. I'll post the full world cup schedule but for now its worth noting the US Open is coming back east to Killington. I've been meaning to hit Killington for years so I think we'll make a weekend of it. Thanks to Clay for making it happen.

DH only world cups and world champs:
  • March 26-27: Lourdes, France (DH)
  • May 21-22: Fort William, UK (DH)
  • June 10-12: Leogang, Austria (DH/XCO/XCC)
  • July 8-10: Lenzerheide (DH/XCO/XCC)
  • July 15-17: Vallnord, Andorra (DH/XCO/XCC)
  • July 29-31: Snowshoe, USA (DH/XCO/XCC)
  • August 5-7: Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada (DH/XCO/XCC)
  • August 24–28: UCI Mountain Bike World Championships – Les Gets, France
  • September 2-4: Val di Sole, Italy (DH/XCO/XCC)

Other big ones:

May 26-29 - Mountain Creek Spring National

Sept 15-18 - US Open at Killington
 
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Ian F

Well-Known Member
Drat. I'll be in Nova Scotia that weekend (September 15-18th). I agree about getting to Killington again. I've only been there once, but it was a fun day trip when I was working in NH. The free-camping part makes me really want to get a van built.
 

NJ-XC-Justin

KY-DH-Freddy
Drat. I'll be in Nova Scotia that weekend (September 15-18th). I agree about getting to Killington again. I've only been there once, but it was a fun day trip when I was working in NH. The free-camping part makes me really want to get a van built.
MSA is the big one for us to hit this coming year since the whole fam will go for the European vibe and beautiful waterfall hikes and such. But I'd love to hit this as well even if just to show clay and team the east coast is where its at and not mammoth. Not like I actually agree with that of course, but hey I like meeting and watching the pros.

The snowshoe WC was honestly the most fun for us.
 

NJ-XC-Justin

KY-DH-Freddy
EWS 2022 sched
Screenshot_20220212-175220_Instagram.jpg
 

Ian F

Well-Known Member
Well... that is interesting... So we can assume the coverage will end up behind a paywall. Which kinda sucks... but I'll reserve final judgement until we know more. I pay for GCN+ which broadcasts mostly road races, so I can't really say I won't pay for a Discovery subscription to watch World Cup racing.
 

Ian F

Well-Known Member
Yeah... that seems to be a popular sentiment. I'm not categorically opposed to replacing Warner, but I would think the change would be better off if Discovery kept him on.
 

serviceguy

Well-Known Member
If Rob Warner is still broadcasting, I will pay to watch it.
I guess he has a few months worth of negotiation coming, or maybe not.

I wonder if from a business point of view this was the plan all along, growing a following and then cash in selling the whole thing to a big broadcasting corporation. It will be interesting to see how the public reacts and how the alternative circuit reacts, I'm thinking of Crankworx which I've never watched.
 

serviceguy

Well-Known Member
This is a concern. Rarely do media companies think broadcasters are a real attraction. Warner is a legit 20% of a world cup. Downhill anyway. XC maybe 5%.
I can't put an exact percentage to it, but I would expect it to be more than 20%. Any idea of who the alternative could be? I can't think of anyone as entertaining, even though in a very specific kind of way. Unless Elliot Jackson catches up quickly, which would be great, I haven't really seen anything matching the weird duo Warner-Caluori yet.
 

Ian F

Well-Known Member
Announcers aside, this might actually be good for the sport as far as maybe getting some outside industry sponsors again. One issue with RedBullTV I've read about for years is they don't really tell anyone what the streaming numbers are. Having more known viewer numbers might make selling to advertisers and sponsors a bit easier.
 

NJ-XC-Justin

KY-DH-Freddy
Announcers aside, this might actually be good for the sport...
I'm completely fine with it. I doubt MTB would ever grow much exclusively within the red bull environment. So now they'll make more money and hopefully get more exposure. I sincerely hope so because I'd hate to lose red bull without some serious upside.
 

Ian F

Well-Known Member
The comments on Pinkbike are pretty much universal hate, but I'm not sure they are taking into account the series need to be run as a business. As much as I enjoyed the Redbull coverage, I tend agree the growth potential had been reached and it's time to try something new. When the Redbull broadcasts started, streaming was something of a novel thing. Now it's more mainstream. We shall see...
 

serviceguy

Well-Known Member
I think that the motivation behind the negative comments is mostly due to the fact that existing alternative to the Red Bull coverage (EWS maybe, I'm not sure as I don't really watch anything else other than WC DH) has been less than stellar and not a real promotion of the sport.

Also National coverage of the US WC can be used as a negative example.

Also again, it appears my original take on this was completely wrong, as it seems this to be an UCI unilateral decision from what transpires so far.
 

Ian F

Well-Known Member
I don't know if I'd consider the EWS coverage to be that bad. Trying to cover that event live would require such a huge amount of investment in people and equipment that it doesn't make financial sense. A high-lights show is about all that is logistically possible. At least with the current technology. Perhaps when there are small cameras that can easily send real-time video to a central editing position via satellites, then maybe. But we're not quite there yet. Not to mention the logistics of drawing manpower from each country. From what I could tell from talking to some of the camera operators at Snowshoe, they were local(ish) workers just there for the event and don't do many Redbull events. I remember seeing the backline area and I can only imagine how much Redbull spends to put the broadcasts together - for what is little more than a light commercial for them.

Everyone wants full runs on video, and while that is possible, it would definitely add costs to the broadcast stream and few are willing to pay for it. I can imagine three videos running at the same time, with a picture-in-picture sort of layout. Or if you want to watch all of your favorite rider, maybe an interactive feed where you can main-screen one rider and have the others smaller. Or have them equally sized. It's only money...
 
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