Broadcast Sport: Warner Bros. Discovery unveils 2023 cycling production plans

Story from Broadcast Sport:

Warner Bros. Discovery has revealed its cycling coverage plans for 2023.

Across discovery+, GCN+, Eurosport and the Eurosport App, the broadcaster will be airing 300 days of cycling, with 210 live events, 4,000 hours of coverage - including replays, 1,000 hours of live coverage, and over 500 hours of locally produced shows over the year.

This includes road cycling - it will broadcast every stage of each of the Grand Tours – Giro d’Italia (6-28 May), Tour de France (1-23 July) and La Vuelta (26 August-17 September) as well as each of the Monument Classics and every one-day Classic race on the UCI World Tour calendar. In addition, there will be extensive coverage of every major women’s road race including the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (23-30 July), the Giro d’ Italia Donne (30 June-9 July) as well as next month’s one-day Tour of Flanders Women (2 April), Paris-Roubaix Femmes (8 April), La Fleche Wallonne Feminine (19 April) and Liege-Bastogne-Liege Femmes (23 April).

This year, viewers will enjoy deeper analysis of each stage of the Tour of Flanders (2 April) and Paris-Roubaix (9 April) Classic races with the race hosted from the mixed-reality Cube studio. 2012 World Champion and winner of four of cycling’s five Monuments Philippe Gilbert will join the Grand Tours presentation team, and will appear on a pan-European basis with experts such as Alberto Contador and Jens Voigt.

Overall, there will be input from Guillaume DiGrazia, Jacky Durand and Steve Chainel (all France); Laura Meseguer, Eduardo Chozas and Dori Ruano (all Spain); Riccardo Magrini, Illenia Lazzarro and Luca Gregorio (all Italy); David Marcour, Lisa Brennauer and Bernie Eisel (Germany); as well as Karsten Kroon and Sander Kleikers (both Netherlands). Iris Slappendel, meanwhile, will be back on the bike reporting from inside the peloton at the Paris-Roubaix Femmes and Tour de France Femmes.

Meanwhile, mountain biking is undergoing a complete overhaul, with a whole new presentation team for the UCI World Mountain Bike Series - which now includes the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup. With the aim to grow the sport, Warner Bros. Discovery will broadcast the downhill, cross-country and cross-country short-track elite finals and all major races from each race weekend on Eurosport and complement this with coverage on Eurosport.com and discovery+ with global coverage on GCN+. Support races from each event weekend will be available to watch for free via Eurosport.com, GCN+, GMBN Racing YouTube channel and the official UCI Mountain Bike World Series YouTube site.

There will be over 20 cameras and three camera drones for each mountain biking event, aiming to increase the quality of the broadcasts. 

Kate Mason will anchor the coverage, with former UCI World Cup winner Cedric Gracia (expert commentator), Bart Brentjens (expert commentator), the first man to win gold for mountain biking at the Olympics, Josh Carlson (reporter), Hayley Edmonds (reporter) and Ric McLaughlin (lead commentator) joining her.

Meanwhile, Global Mountain Bike Network’s dedicated race-focused YouTube channel, GMBN Racing, will offer superfans a deeper experience of the format with a dedicated news show, highlights packages, race previews, bike checks and exclusive behind-the-scenes content.

Gracia, visiting the Cube studio in London for the cycling season launch event, said: “I am extremely excited, of course. We are going to add new technology into this beautiful sport, drones following races, incredible views, if you are not familiar with mountain biking then it might be a good time to start. Put your seatbelt on because it’s going to be flat-out.

“It’s going to be the perfect time for people to start following mountain biking. The evolution of mountain biking is exceptional - for me, it is the new Formula 1, we have telemetry on the bikes, everyone is working so hard to get that victory. It is going to be exceptional.”

Warner Bros. Discovery will be promoting this content with its Home Of Cycling campaign, that features Alberto Contador, Jens Voigt, Laura Meseguer, Adam Blythe, Ilenia Lazzarro and Iris Slappendel and was recorded at Mogador Studios in Paris, France.

Scott Young, SVP of content and production at Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, said: “As the Home of Cycling, we feel a great responsibility to deliver the best possible experience to fans across our platforms. To be able to showcase over 300 days of cycling takes a monumental effort and one we take great pride in.

“Whether it be through live coverage, in-depth analysis including immersive storytelling, unrivalled expertise or a deeper engagement with the sport via feature-length documentaries, Warner Bros. Discovery is the true destination for cycling fans. We will be at the epicentre of the sport throughout the season, solidifying our approach to year-long storytelling with Paris 2024 on the horizon for so many of the athletes that will be seen during our coverage.”