This Friday, the 101st Giro d鈥橧talia started聽with a time trial in Jerusalem鈥攖he first time any of pro cycling鈥檚 Grand Tours have ever begun聽outside of Europe. And while that聽and the should-he-race-or-sit controversy surrounding聽Chris Froome聽will dominate the headlines, a small but significant piece of news merits attention. For the first time, American race fans have not one, but two聽legal viewing options to watch the race. It's聽part of a new landscape of over-the-top streaming options that offer racing fans the chance to see every road, cyclocross, mountain bike, and track event of note鈥攆or less than $200 a year total.
More on that in a moment, but to understand why that matters, consider what used to be the status quo.
Bike racing is a staple broadcast sport in Europe, where you鈥檒l find it on channels ranging from Eurosport to Sporza to RAI. But in the U.S., pickings have been slim. About two years ago, the Tour de France and a few other races from promoter ASO were the only events reliably shown on TV or livestreamed. Watching other races required going down one of three avenues: expensive pay-TV packages; a VPN that didn鈥檛 always work; or dodgy pirate streams, littered with porny pop-up ads and, likely viruses. Occasional entrepreneurs, like Cycling.tv, tried to offer a legal home for streaming, but they were beset by numerous, diverse issues.
Finally, there appears to be a real solution for long-suffering fans, thanks to a few new subscription services from three providers. It's not a perfect system: you'll still have to do some stitching together and there's聽a handful of missing events.聽But for the most part, every important road and cyclocross race will have coverage, plus track World Cups and World Championships in all disciplines. What鈥檚 more, everything is over-the-top streaming鈥攏o pay-TV account required鈥攁nd it鈥檚 relatively affordable.
Here鈥檚 where to find races and how to watch them.聽
Costs and How to Pick Your Service聽
NBC Sports Gold
$40 per year
Pros: Affordable. Established, legit service with reliable, high-quality and ad-free streaming.
Cons: Not much outside of ASO events and UCI World Cups/World Championships
Note: The subscription period runs from the start of the Tour de France to the end of next June and is currently on a modest sale but not pro-rated, so wait to sign up.
Fubo
Free 7-day trial; $20 for the first month; $57 per month after that
Pros: Established; part of a large, sports-heavy OTT package; excellent technical product: bug-free and sharp. Can share an account with one other user, and DVR events to watch later. Monthly, no contract.
Cons: Monthly-only, no annual discount, so pick your start and end dates carefully. The big drawback for cycling fans聽is price: You have to buy the $45 per month base package, which includes a bunch of other sports channels, then add $12 to get the cycling events (hence the $57 per month鈥攐r almost $700 per year).聽
FloBikes
$30 per month or $150 per year
Pros: Affordable, adding races to schedule quickly. Has cyclocross and second-tier road events no one else does. Shows women鈥檚 races. Monthly or annual subscriber options.
Cons: Calendar still not set for 2019. Can鈥檛 share an account.
My Plan
I'll get a聽Fubo free trial in May聽to cover the Giro, then cancel this subscription聽and buy (or renew) NBC Sports Gold in late June. I might try a monthly FloBikes membership in September to test-drive the product. Then, I'll wait until fall to see if FloBikes picks up more races and the calendar matches or exceeds Fubo.
If Fubo is still the best option, I'll start a free trial the day before Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. The trial and three months membership gets me聽through the 2019 Giro for $134 or $67 each if I聽split with a buddy, and my聽NBC Sports Gold covers much of the rest of the season. The Spring Classics and Giro are the heart of Fubo鈥檚 schedule, and the rest of the calendar doesn鈥檛 merit the cost.
Phew. But I promise: It's better than it was.聽
顿颈蝉肠颈辫濒颈苍别蝉听
搁辞补诲听
Here your best option聽is聽NBC Sports Gold, which聽has the Tour de France, Vuelta Espana, and all other events from promoter ASO, plus UCI World Championships and World Cups.
Fubo covers pretty much all the other road events, thanks to its own rights and a partnership with NBC Sports. But most of the races it owns broadcast rights to happen in the聽first part of the year, and there鈥檚 not much cyclocross, so it鈥檚 not worth the full price for an annual subscription.
FloBikes is the wildcard: they鈥檙e much cheaper than Fubo, but were still putting together their schedule mid-season as of this story.聽
Track
NBC Sports Gold, which carries track World Cups.
Mountain Bike
NBC Sports Gold, which has rights to World Championships. All the World Cups are free to watch,聽live and on-demand on .
Cyclocross
NBC Sports Gold has rights for World Cups and World Championships.
FloBikes will carry much of the rest of the calendar, including the DVV and Soudal series. also streams the DVV series for free.
Schedules