Gravel & Endurance MTB Don’t Need to be TV-Friendly
It’s fine. Road, track, cyclocross, and downhill have it covered.
When all the stars are on the line, the course is difficult and slippery, and the stakes are high, it is tough to top cyclocross as a fan-friendly cycling discipline. Look no further than Sunday’s cyclocross World Cup in Hulst. Young stars Puck Pieterse and Fem van Empel tangled in the women’s race, the former riding smooth and consistent and the latter risking it all on the treacherous descents. We were also treated to a long-anticipated duel between Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock. The former world champ facing the current champ; who comes out ahead?
I won’t spoil it for you, but this isn’t supposed to be a race report in the first place.
All I’m saying is that ‘cross action makes for great TV. It is elbows-out, head-to-head racing, distilled to an hour or less, and it is held on a short loop that’s like a boot camp obstacle course for bikes.
Instead of trying to shoehorn authentic race formats into old-school media, we should embrace the challenge and cover events in new ways.
Almost everything that cyclocross is, gravel and endurance MTB are not. That is just fine. Cycling has plenty of racing formats that appeal to in-person and TV audiences alike. Instead of trying to shoehorn authentic race formats into old-school media, we should embrace the challenge and cover events like Leadville Trail MTB and Unbound Gravel in new ways.
Let’s start by considering why some forms of bike racing are already primed for TV audiences. I think I’ve made my point about cyclocross, but track cycling also deserves a shout-out for concise, intense racing. I think it falls short when it comes to educating fans about the nuances of the different events, though. Maybe someday we’ll return to track’s Madison Square Garden salad days.
WorldTour road racing naturally gravitates to the center of any conversation about fan-friendly (or not) bike racing. Is it like gravel? Yes, on paper, the races are long and difficult. However, team tactics and consistent race surfaces (ignoring outliers like Paris-Roubaix) result in closer competition, tactical games, and unpredictable outcomes. From the beginning, European pro road racing was designed to sell newspapers, attract fans, and make money. Despite the sport’s many ups and downs, I’d say it still does that.
From the beginning, European pro road racing was designed to sell newspapers, attract fans, and make money.
Now, not everyone likes road racing. Fortunately, Olympic-format cross-country mountain bike racing — despite being a weird bastardization of “normal” mountain biking — has come a long way in becoming more spectator friendly, and the TV broadcasts are excellent. Olympic XC is to Marathon MTB as Cyclocross is to Gravel. Sorta.
World Cup Downhill MTB races are also exciting to watch and packaged in a TV-friendly format. Imagine that, a time trial that isn’t boring! I chalk it up to great on-screen graphics, a deep field of competitors, and frighteningly gnarly tracks.
Many formats of bike racing naturally lead to exciting and entertaining spectating experiences. Gravel and endurance mountain bike racing aren’t like that. These races are won with hours of grinding tenacity. Often, an anticlimactic climb or obstacle pares down the final contenders to just a select few early in the race. Sometimes, there are freak mechanicals or physiological meltdowns, but many of these events unfold predictably. The strongest rider wins.
So what do we do about it? The UCI attempted to glam up gravel for broadcast when it promoted its gravel World Championships. I caught the final short circuits of racing. Honestly, it felt like I was watching some second-tier midweek classic race like Le Samyn, except there were hardly and contenders, and the pro race was lapping age-group racers. I don’t think that was entertaining for road racing fans, and I don’t think it pleased gravel fans either.
Whatever your opinion of influencer culture, it proves that you can produce digestible, inspiring media that captures the excitement of something like a 50-mile mountain bike race.
Instead of broadcasting hours of gravel or endurance MTB racing live, as if it were an NFL game, why not give these races more sizzle and attract a broader swath of fans?
Have you ever noticed how some of your friends and “friends” tend to post tons of photos and videos from boring rides that don’t seem worthy of documentation? Maybe I’m just a grouchy old cynic, but I don’t usually take many photos on really good rides. In the right hands, social media can make an average bike ride look awesome. Whatever your opinion of influencer culture, it proves that you can make unexpected or unfamiliar topics interesting through digestible media. Who among us hasn’t gone down a rabbit hole on social media?
No matter if you’re an avid TikTok user or not, it’s plain to see the trend toward short online videos.
Instead of devolving long-course races into lame short circuits, let’s use this trend to highlight the most exciting parts of the events. A few one-minute videos can capture the key moments and vibe of an eight-hour race, if done well. And, instead of limiting distribution to people who have GCN+ or FloBikes subscriptions, it lives online for free.
Long-form content isn’t dead either! Look no further than some of the short films that EF has produced with its alternative racing schedule or the content individual riders like Payson McElveen have released. And, speaking from experience, in-depth profiles of interesting personalities, influential events, or unexpected happenings are still getting read by bike enthusiasts. Sometimes the stories surrounding the racing are more exciting than the actual racing itself.
The event organizers who popularized long-distance gravel events and marathon mountain bike races have always thought differently. It takes a creative mind to string together courses like the Whiskey Off-Road, Mid South Gravel, or Crusher in the Tushar. This type of racing deserves an equally creative approach to sharing the action with the world.