We’ve all heard about it, watching the World Cup live this year is going to cost a whole lot more money, as mountain biking gets lumped in with football and fighting. It’s dreadful news, but we shouldn’t be surprised, here’s why.

First up it’s particularly unsurprising when Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD), which owns the rights to show the downhill live, has treated the actual racing the same way already. It’s cataclysmic to us true fans to have the race format we love ‘improved’ with semi’s and restricted fields. To see World Enduro, become basically Euro Enduro. XCM World Cups entirely killed off despite marathon racing being the biggest part of MTB in terms of actual rider participation. Smaller teams and privateers are being priced out so the few remaining riders can be made into ‘rock stars’ that are easier to sell to casual viewers. While ironically ‘Rock Star’ presenters like Rob Warner are removed because they might be a bit much for the mass market.

WBD has treated the actual racing the same way already

But from a business point of view, bulldozing the simplification strategies that have worked elsewhere over the top of our awkwardly complicated sport is what was always going to happen. In fact if anyone at the Warner Bros sportscast top table even bothers to look at MTB focused forums or social media they’ll probably be utterly baffled why we’re so upset. I mean, surely we can’t really only want to watch people falling off motorless bikes rather than getting football and fights as well? After all, millions of people love watching a brightly lit box shaped arena that’s easy to screen. As opposed to thousands who complain bitterly if they don’t get to see every metre of a distant dirty hillside.

Obviously Covid stampeded unprecedented herds of people onto the trails but, having lived most of mountain biking’s history, I can tell you it’s happened over and over again. Everyone gets greedy on the money potentially being brought in by big advertisers and investors from outside the bike industry, next we get more telly time, and then it goes to pot. It was GT, Nukeproof and others recently, but we saw Sunn, Schwinn and Raleigh die when the Olympic money went away in the late 90s. Before that it was pioneers like Breezer, Muddy Fox, Univega etc. who just became a name on mass market junk.

And I’m sure in every case the suits nodded while some passionate product managers explained why they needed so many different bikes that all looked the same. Kept nodding at how important heritage was to the brand and that genuine innovation was everything. But the bottom line was always the bottom line for the business boys. They’re there to please the shareholders, not the fan who’ll try and suck up the price gouge for the same reason they’ll stand in the rain in Fort Bill for hours.

For the sake of an extra sentence or two we can cite the Welsh Trail Centre culls here too. Coed y Brenin was a huge success, but every time they added another site, that diluted the win. So investments in infrastructure paid back less in terms of cafe visits and car park tolls. So maintenance budgets vanished in favour of volunteer groups who soon started going off-piste to reflect increasingly radical riding tastes. A few berms and blue flow trails were added too little too late, but by then we’d all gone to Bike Park Wales, Revs, Dyfi and so on.

Because just like the trails we ride on, mountain biking just can’t support big numbers, because fundamentally it’s a difficult and niche thing to do. Plus every tech and riding development we love takes it further away from being inclusive and inexpensive. It also means any attached business has to keep pace with all the changes to stay relevant – and constant change is always the enemy of easy profit.

We’re proud we like sending and singletrack not soccer, united by the fact that when we hit the deck we brush off the dirt

But deep down we like that because it marks us as different. In the same way we’re proud we like sending and singletrack not soccer. United by the fact that when we hit the deck we brush off the dirt and try to do it better next time. We don’t turn it into a pathetic drama to get the tree a red card or the gap jump banned for being too big. And while we will pay a silly amount for stuff we really rate, there just aren’t millions of us to make millions out of.

What’s next for downhill?

So what happens next? We’ve put together a guide on how to watch the World Cup downhill mountain biking on TNT for as little as £10 with EE, which is small comfort but might just get you through.

And one final note, support interesting bike brands, independent shops and media that are run on passion not profit. It’s not World Cup racing but it’s still an act of sticking two fingers up to the mega brands than control what we see… or don’t see. If you just click the bait, or go for the biggest discount on generic product, how we get sold and served our mountain biking is going to get very boring and very basic. And if you’re really lost for something to do on a weekend, you could just ride your bike more. Because however much watching Bruni gets you stoked, hitting the trails yourself is always a better idea.