UKC

Short of moving to the continent, taking out a sky package, buying very expensive DVD's after the event, or buying a new PVR as I can't get Eurosport on my PVR, is there a way to watch Pro Cycling races in the UK except for the Tour and now the Vuelta?

I asked Ned Boulting if there was any chance of seeing the Classics on ITV4 and he criptically answered "don't know yet", so what can the UK based viewer see? Is there pay per view on the internet? Free sites? Any ideas?

Cheers

In reply to Escher:

Most big races are streamed onto the internet - I watch the Giro here in France on RAI and Gazzetta TV.

Try this fella here: http://www.steephill.tv/

He's usually got links to where you can find all the big events online.

E

In reply to Enty: Nice one, cheers

In reply to Escher:

I've tried links from the site Enty posted in the past without much success.

You can get a subscription to Eurosport's online player/viewer for £4/month and can cancel at any point. I generally get it from sometime about Paris-Nice/ Spring Classics through to the Giro di Lombardia.

In reply to Escher: Eurosport Player is okay but I have had bad experiences with their customer service (which I had to call upon frequently due to the tendency of the player to break). The quality is also fairly poor, so I won't be using that again.

There is an illegal option whereby you can download torrents of cycling recorded off the TV via a dediciated site... I won't name the site for fear of being prosecuted and extradited to the US, but if you search google for torrents and cycling, you'll find it.

Or... find a bike shop, friend or pub with Eurosport HD and go and sit there for the day! Mmmm... HD Paris-Roubaix...

In reply to niallk:

Not all of steephilltv's links work all of the time - however they often direct you to other servers (eg Freedocast) that have a number of different streaming options. The downside is that commentary can be in any number of European languages - and the picture quality might not be too good. Even so, with a little bit of effort you can generally find one link that's streaming Eurosport 'by the back door'.

In reply to Escher:

http://www.cyclingfans.com is all that you should need. You will quickly learn to love Flemish commentary!

In reply to niallk:

I got Eurosport player two years ago for The Giro and cancelled it straight after. 13 months later the missus said "what's all these four quids coming out of the account every month?"

E

In reply to Escher:

Never had any problem with the Italian and Belgian telly.

e

In reply to Enty:

Aye, their customer service on that front is a poor, but I've found a quick email to them sorts it out.

Quality not supreme, but generally fine. I'm not sure what it's normal to expect on a live internet stream?

In reply to Escher:

+1 for cyclingfans.com

The world cyclo-cross championships from Koksijde in Belgium will be shown on Sunday afternoon. A brilliant course based on the beach so well worth a watch!

In reply to Escher:
I agree cyclingfans is the best bet.
Went to the cyclo-cross worlds in Belgium 5 years ago. Unbelievable experience. Watch out for Sven Nys, best cross rider of his generation.

In reply to Escher:

http://www.wiziwig.tv/competition.php?part=sports&discipline=cycling

In reply to Escher: Anyone managing to watch any of the Tour of Qatar via those links? Ta

In reply to Escher: I caught the last 5 minutes of stage 2 of the Tour of Qatar via the steephill link.

I'm annoyed that I didn't look sooner -- but it's probably just as well as the boss called and he was on the phone for 15 minutes!

In reply to Escher:

Today's stage has about 20k to go -- steephill link's working fine