These are the consequences of the mountain bike revolution

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The mountain bike stars Nino Schurter, Jolanda Neff and Co. enter a new era in 2023. Behind the scenes, the American-British mega company Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (including Eurosport) the marketing and TV rights of the Austrians of Red Bull TV. The new bosses now determine everything on behalf of the UCI world federation, from organization to promotion.

Warner Bros. wants to do big business with mountain bikes. It remains to be seen whether our cycling heroes can be seen on free TV soon. Paid live streams have been announced on Eurosport online, on the Velo platform GCN+ and Discovery+, which cannot be received in Switzerland.

Cycling legend Thomas Frischknecht (53) is the boss of Schurter’s Scott team and tells Blick: “It’s a great opportunity to make our sport bigger. But you have to be careful that the World Cup doesn’t become a two-class society.”

Entry costs three times higher than in 2022

Warner Bros. shocked teams by tripling the entry fee. Even though the package includes more services than before, there is a risk that the starting field will be thinned out because small teams drop out due to the explosion of costs and the large teams can afford fewer drivers. In addition, new, travel-expensive races are already haunting Asia, Australia and the Middle East.

The change of power also affects the 2023 calendar. All disciplines are now grouped together as a “Mountain Bike World Series”, and all disciplines will compete at the same venue more often than before. The new flagship: World Cup venue Les Gets (Fri), hosting a ten-day mega event in September.

New conditions also for Lenzerheide

And the consequence for the Swiss World Cup mecca Lenzerheide? The crowd puller suddenly takes place from 9 to 11 June instead of July as usual. Apparently also to avoid the spring classics and the Tour de France – which are a big problem at Eurosport.

The new bosses are also demanding higher fees from the race organizers and are actively involved in local organization. They want to organize the races as an event rather than just a sporting event. Lenzerheide OK boss Christoph Müller: “We are curious how it will turn out.”

The bicycle revolution is a bet on the future. Or the sport is growing so fast that more non-industrial sponsors are bringing new money into the sport. Or the great visions run out of air like a Velopneue.

Source : Blick