'There's an appetite for it': Monument Cycling brings live British road racing to TV

Starting with the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix on Sunday, British elite bike racing will once again have live coverage, for the first time since 2019.

This is thanks to Monument Cycling, a start-up social media production agency, which has moved from clips of National Road Series races on Instagram, to highlights, to now putting the last hour of the elite races out live through their own streaming service.

"Every year we think this would be cool to do, and then we came to the conclusion that if we could fund live coverage ourselves, then let's do it," Owen Lake, Monument's founder, explains to Cycling Weekly. "It ties in quite nicely, because this is just the same as we were doing before, just on a grander scale." 

For £5.99 a month, or £49.99 a year, fans of British cycling can now subscribe to Monument Cycling and gain access to live coverage of the last hour of the races they coverage, beginning with Lincoln.

The domestic cycling scene has suffered in the UK in recent years, with races collapsing, some of Britain’s leading UCI Continental teams have suffered financial issues or struggled for sponsorship. A British Cycling task force was commissioned to uncover ways of reversing the slide, and came up with 16 recommendations, which including producing a new branding, marketing and communications framework.

The lack of live coverage - or any coverage at all - has clearly been one thing holding domestic racing back, and Lake thinks that Monument could have a key part to play in bringing better days back.

"When I was racing, it was a really high level scene, there was investment, and riders could make a living off it," the 31-year-old says. "That's what I want to build up to, and build bigger than that. I want this coverage to be sustainable, and that's what the organisers, riders, teams and BC understand too. 

"If we can make it sustainable and say every year that the income we get covers the funding, that helps grow the scene too. The Lincoln Grand Prix would happen, and teams could tell their sponsors that the coverage would happen again next year. That helps to build it up, and helps the races become sustainable too."

"With the correct environment, with the correct way of publicising these things, people will want to watch it," Lake continues. "People will watch these races. With personalities, and the right presentation, there's an appetite for it. I'm deeply passionate about it, and there must be other people who are deeply passionate about it too."

While there are more British women's Continental teams than ever before - Alba Development Road Team, DAS-Handsling, Doltcini O’Shea, Hess, Lifeplus Wahoo, and Pro-Noctis-200° Coffee-Hargreaves Contracting - this opportunity will hopefully help to grow the scene. 

Meanwhile, there remains just two British men's Conti teams, Saint Piran and Trinity, with the latter an under-23 project. There is space for British racing to grow, and the rising tide could lift all boats. Monument is one part of the road there.

"This is the first public thing," Lake says. "We did a trial for the East Cleveland Classic. We did everything as if it was live, but just for the teams effectively. That was a live test before we put it out to the world. Last year, we did all the highlights. While Lincoln is the first public one, it's not the first time.

"We're all quite experienced, so going in to Cleveland we were aiming to find an improvement, but it all ran as you'd expect. The quality of what we're doing is hopefully what you'd expect to see on Eurosport or the old GCN+. We're using the same equipment they would use. We didn't want to compromise on quality because it was the British scene.

"It's not just going to be the race live, and extended highlights, but some extended analysis and reaction too, and some extra behind-the-scenes stuff that you won't be able to get anywhere else."

With more watching, with people able to follow a season of British racing, a new generation of domestic fans will hopefully emerge. That's the plan, anyway.