What's your favourite early season race? Is it the traditional season opener Omloop het Niewsblad? Strade Bianche is hugely popular. Or do you get excited by the first monument, Milan-San Remo and its helter skelter descent off the Poggio?
They’re all great opportunities to see who’s on form and watch some brilliant racing. Will Tadej Pogačar repeat his stellar showing of last season? Will Mark Cavendish ride the Tour? Will he beat Eddy Merckx’s Tour stage win tally this year? Can Philippe Gilbert win Milan-San Remo in his final season to capture his missing fifth monument?
Whatever your favourite race, chances are it’s available for you to watch live and advert-free or to catch up later on demand on GCN+, GCN’s premium subscription service.
There’s live coverage of all the spring classics, including the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. You can continue into the spring with the shorter stage races like Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour of Romandie, which often draw out the big name riders to get in race days before heading on to the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España - all covered.
(Image credit: GCN)
GCN+ has race highlights available on demand as well, with commentary by its team of ex-pro presenters. There’s race analysis with Adam Blythe and Magnus Backstedt presenting The Breakaway, while the weekly World of Cycling show gives you race reporting and background analysis and interviews.
If you’re interested in smaller races like Tro-Bro Leon and GP Denain, they’re covered on GCN+ too and there’s extensive coverage of women’s racing throughout the season. In fact, depending on where you live, you can watch all the pro races throughout the road racing season from Het Niewsblad right through to Il Lombardia.
When the road racing finishes, the action on GCN+ just carries on with coverage of track cycling and a full calendar of cyclocross racing, including the World Cup and World Championship races and the other major competitions, with road stars Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel often going back to their cyclocross roots, taking you round to the start of the next road season. In total there are over 340 days of racing available live and on demand on GCN+.
Broadcast rights are complex and what you can watch depends on where you’re located, but GCN+ is constantly working to secure rights to new races. UK subscribers have access to the full complement of GCN+’s race coverage, but if you live elsewhere take a look at the list of races and race highlights available live and on demand on GCN+ in your country.
Not just racing
GCN+ doesn’t just offer you racing though. There’s loads of other content available to subscribers. You can choose from over 100 documentaries, including the inside story of Mark Beaumont’s round the world ride, a look at Fabian Cancellara’s life post-retirement and a ride in Iceland across Europe’s largest glacier. There are new documentaries added every week.
Plus there are plenty of training video options, with or without music. They cover everything from 15 minute HIIT to sprints and high and low cadence drills.
Sign up to GCN+ now for a year of great racing
(Image credit: GCN)
GCN+ costs £6.99 a month in the UK, or you can save over 50% by subscribing for a year for £39.99. It’s available on a whole range of platforms: all web browsers, Amazon FireTV, Samsung Smart TV, AndroidTV, Chromecast and Apple AirPlay as well as the GCN app, so you can set yourself up and settle in for the big screen experience or take GCN+ with you on your phone.
Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.
He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.
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