EXCLUSIVE - Chris Ball Talks Discovery/ESO and the Future of Mountain Bike World Cup Racing

Since the announcement of the Discovery take over from Red Bull, there has been a lot of speculation and concern over what will happen to the sport we all love. Well, I was lucky enough to get a chance to chat to Chris to find out all about their plans. We cover a bit of Chris’ background, how Discovery got involved and why Chris sees this as a good thing for mountain biking. I ask him about the changes to the format, prize money, if we’ll have to pay to watch the racing, who will be commentating and more.

If you'd prefer to listen to this episode then you can find it on any podcast app or at https://www.downtimepodcast.com/chris...

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0:00 - 0:56 Intro
0:56 - 05:51 Chris’ Background
05:51 - 09:06 Building the EWS
09:06 - 14:28 Discovery Involvement in EWS
14:28 - 24:25 Discovery Taking Over World Cup
24:25 - 37:10 Environment, Course Design & Safety
37:10 - 51:18 Coverage
51:18 - 1:01:55 Format Changes
1:01:55 - 1:06:16 Communication
1:06:16 - 1:10:30 Enduro
1:10:30 - 1:13:54 Accessibility
1:13:54 - 1:17:32 Prize Money, Value etc
1:17:32 - 1:24:07 Test Events and Outro