Good news! South Africans will be able to watch the 2024 UCI MTB World Cup Series – live. A last-minute announcement was made by the UCI MTB World Cup Series on its social media channels on Friday, the day the first round of the 2024 Series begins in Brazil. Here’s how to watch in South Africa.
By Sean Badenhorst
Following weeks of uncertainty, South African mountain bike racing fans can relax knowing that they will have access to live broadcast of the XCC, XCO and Downhill events in the 2024 UCI MTB World Cup Series.
South African-based sports broadcaster, SuperSport has traditionally broadcast the series to its Premium subscribers. But for 2024, the rights have been awarded to Staylive, a Swedish streaming solutions company.
It will require South Africans to subscribe to the Staylive service at a cost of $5.99 (R115) per month or $59.99 (R1 125) per year. TREAD Media has subscribed to the monthly option. We checked the terms and conditions and it is possible to cancel the subscription at any time. We’re trusting that the broadcast will happen as advertised.
It’s important to note that SuperSport has been trying to get the broadcast rights right up until this week, according to their email communication with us.
Round 1 of the UCI MTB World Cup kicks off in Brazil today (Friday 12 April) with the Under-23 XCC races. The Elite XCC races take place tomorrow (Saturday 13 April) and the Elite XCO races will be held on Sunday, 14 April. Staylive will broadcast live the Elite races live as follows:
Saturday 13 April
17h00: Elite Women XCC
17h35: Elite Men XCC
Sunday 14 April
17h15: Elite Women XCO
19h30 Elite Men XCO
Note: times shown are South African time
Here is the link to the Staylive website to create an account and subscribe.
South Africa’s top racers, Candice Lill and Alan Hatherly will be in action in Elite XCC and XCO races. There’s also XCC and XCO racing for Under-23 and Tyler Jacobs and Luke Moir are the South Africans that will be contesting the women and men’s races respectively.
For the full racing schedule this weekend, click here.
