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

Downtime - The Mountain Bike Podcast

Downtime MTB

Leisure, Health & Fitness, Hobbies, Sports, Wilderness, Fitness

4.9 • 628 Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2023

⏱️ 86 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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 Ball 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 for Discovery and more. So sit back, hit play and listen to this episode with Chris Ball.

If you’d prefer to watch this episode, then you can do that over on my YouTube channel here.

You can keep up to date with progress over at ucimtbworldseries.com or by following @uci_mtbworldseries on Instagram.

Podcast Stuff

Downtime EP

Downtime EP issue 2 is now available at downtimepodcast.com/ep. EP takes inspiration from the guests and topics of the podcast. It expands on them, and takes them into a stunning print-only format. EP is the perfect companion for some quiet time away from the distractions of modern life. Beautiful to have and hold, and a timeless piece of mountain bike history.

Just head over to downtimepodcast.com/ep to save yourself £5 off of the cover price with an annual subscription for just £20 plus postage or you can purchase EP1, or EP2 on their own too.

Merch

If you want to support the podcast, and represent, then my webstore is the place to head. All products are 100% organic, shipped without plastics, and made with a supply chain that’s using renewable energy. So check it out now over at downtimepodcast.com/shop.

If you want a bit more Downtime in your life, then you can join my newsletter where I’ll provide you with a bit of behind the scenes info on the podcast, interesting bits and pieces from around the mountain bike world, some mini-reviews of products that I’ve been using and like, partner offers and more. You can do that over at downtimepodcast.com/newsletter.

Give us a follow on Instagram @downtimepodcast or Facebook @downtimepodcast to keep up to date and chat in the comments.

For everything video, including riding videos, bike checks and more, subscribe over at youtube.com/downtimemountainbikepodcast.

Are you enjoying the podcast? If so, then don’t forget to follow it. Each episode will get delivered to your device as soon as it’s available and it’s totally free. You’ll find all the links you need at downtimepodcast.com/follow. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google and most of the podcast apps out there.

Our back catalogue of amazing episodes is available at downtimepodcast.com/episodes

Photo – ESO

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey everyone, I'm Chris Hall and this is a very special episode of the
0:07.0	Downtown Podcast where we'll be hearing from the man behind the Discovery ESO takeover of the
0:11.5	Mountain Bike World Cup from 2023 onwards. You can either listen to this episode here or if you
0:16.7	prefer to watch it, you can now do that over on my YouTube channel, which is YouTube.com forward slash at downtime podcast. I'll also pop a link to the video in the show
0:25.8	notes over on my website, downtimepodcast.com. If you're new to the podcast, don't forget to
0:30.6	follow us, so you're the first to get all of our episodes that go deep into the world of
0:34.3	gravity mountain biking. You can do that by hitting follow in your podcast app now
0:38.5	or by head into downtimepodcast.com for slash follow where there's buttons to help you do that on all
0:43.5	the major platforms. I'd also love it if you give us a follow on Instagram and Facebook where we're at
0:48.0	Downtown Podcast. All the links for all of that are in the show notes for this episode over on
0:52.8	downtimepodcast.com.
0:55.1	All right, back in February last year, it was announced that Discovery would be taken over from Red Bull in covering the Mountain Bike World Cup.
1:01.4	The man leading the team to do this is Chris Ball.
1:04.2	Chris is an ex World Cup downhill racer who built the Enduro World Series and now runs the ESO,
1:09.1	a team of people who are going to be responsible for the Mountain Bike World Series for now runs the ESO, a team of people who are going to be responsible
1:11.5	for the Mountain Bike World Series for at least the next eight years. Over the past year,
1:16.2	there's been a lot of speculation and concern over what will happen to the sport that we all love.
1:20.6	Well, I was lucky enough to get a chance to chat to Chris to find out all about their plans.
1:25.2	We cover a little bit of Chris's background, how discovery got
1:28.2	involved and why Chris sees this is a good thing for mountain biking. I ask him about the changes to
1:32.9	the format, prize money, if we'll have to pay to watch the racing, who's going to be
1:37.3	commentating and much, much more. So without further ado, here's Chris Ball.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Downtime MTB, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Downtime MTB and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.