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Tom’s Guide

Technology

Simon Warren

How to watch Cyclocross live streams now that GCN+ has gone

GCN Tom Pidcock World Cup ExpressVPN Discovery Van Aert van der Poel Belgium BR Sports Eurosport

Watch Cyclocross live streams featuring Tom Pidcock (pictured).

Cyclocross reaches fever pitch as we head into the festive season. Big name riders, Tom Pidcock, Wout Van Aert and Mathieu Van der Poel are lined up to race those who have been battling each other since the middle of October. It's all there and ready. The only trouble? GCN+ isn't. So are are you supposed to watch Cyclocross live streams now that GCN+ has folded?

Read on and we'll show you how to watch the cycling wherever you are in the world with a VPN and potentially for free!

CYCLOCROSS LIVE STREAMS

Whee to Watch Cyclocross
► U.K. — Discovery +
► U.S. — FloBikes
► Italy — Rai (FREE)
► Belgium. — Sporza (FREE)
► France — France TV (FREE)
► Watch anywhere — Try ExpressVPN 100% risk free

It’s not just the calibre of the Cyclocross competition that increases but also the frequency of the events with a race every couple of days to keep the beer addled Belgians and Dutch entertained throughout Christmas.

That's all well and good for the Europeans with their free Cyclocross live streams and Eurosport and Discovery Plus to fall back on when that fails. But what about cycling fans in the States, Canada, Australia and everywhere else?

Even with cycling streaming specialist GCN+ now out of the picture, there are still viewing options in most regions if you know where to find them. And you can always jump on the back of streams from elsewhere too with a VPN if you happen to be traveling away from home.

We've got all the details you need below to figure out which streaming services you'll need and even how to use a VPN too.

FREE Cyclocross live streams

If you live in Italy, Belgium or France then you can look forward to FREE Cyclocross live streams.

That's because the free-to-air Rai Sport in Italy, and Sporza in Belgium, and FranceTV in, yes, France all have rights to pieces of the action. They won't all have every race but they're a good place to look and we'll keep this page updated with specific coverage information for upcoming races.

But what if you're based in another country at the time of the race and aren't at home to catch your free Cyclocross coverage?

Don't worry — you can watch it using a VPN instead. We'll show you how to do that below.

Watch Cyclocross live streams anywhere

It's only natural that you might want to watch a Cyclocross live stream from your home country, but what if you're not there when the event is on?

Look no further than a VPN, or virtual private network. A VPN makes it look as if you're surfing the web from your home country, rather than the one you're in. That means you can access the streaming services you already pay for, from anywhere on Earth. Or anywhere that has an internet connection, at least.

They're totally legal, inexpensive and easy to use. We've tested the best VPN services and our favorite right now is ExpressVPN. It's fast, works on loads of devices and even offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Using a VPN is incredibly simple.

1. Install the VPN of your choice. As we've said, ExpressVPN is our favorite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN app. For instance if you're in the U.S. and want to view a Belgian service, you'd select Belgium from the list.

3. Sit back and enjoy the action. Head to Sporza or another streaming service and watch the Cyclocross.

Watch Cyclocross live streams around the world

How to watch Cyclocross live streams in the U.S and Canada

Some live cycling in the USA and Canada will continue to be broadcast on FloBikes. A subscription will set you back US$149.99 / CAN$150 for the year or US$29.99 / CAN$29.99 on a monthly basis.

However, be warned that FloBikes hasn’t picked up all live broadcasting rights from GCN+. They will be airing UCI World Cup and X20 Trofee cyclocross events going forward, though, as well as road racing at the Tour Down Under and AlUla Tour in January.

NBC and its streaming service Peacock TV also holds the rights to several major races throughout the year, including the Tour de France in the USA, though none in December or January.

For other races users will have to head to MAX where Subscribers will need to purchase the B/R Sports add-on to view the live cycling roster, which, according to the press release, will include more than 300 events including the Giro d’Italia, the E3 Saxo Bank Classic, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and “more”.

A subscription to Max (HBO Max subscribers will automatically be converted to Max) costs $9.99/month or $99.99/year with ads, $15.99/month or $149.99/year for ad-free and $19.99/month or $199.99/year for “Ultimate Ad-Free”. The B/R Sports add-on (free for Max subscribers through February 29, 2024) will cost $9.99/month more and requires a base subscription.

How to watch Cyclocross live streams in the U.K.

With the demise of GCN+, live coverage of the Cyclocross will continue to be broadcast on Eurosport and Discovery+ so no need to panic. It seems all the same races will be covered with the usual commentators that featured on GCN+.

A standard subscription to Discovery+ will set you back £6.99 per month or £59.99 per year. That is more than GCN+ but the package includes all cycling coverage as well as sports including snooker, tennis, motorsports, the Paris Olympic Games, and more.

If you're currently traveling overseas, don't worry, as you can use ExpressVPN to watch from abroad.

How to watch Cyclocross live streams in Australia

At the time of writing no Australian broadcasters appear to have picked up the rights to live stream cyclocross races in Australia after the closure of GCN+.

Not an Aussie? If you're based Down Under but have rights to other streams in other countries, you can use a VPN, such as ExpressVPN, to watch the cyclocross on a streaming service of your choice.

Remaining 2023-2024 season Cyclocross events

You can catch Van Aert and Van der Poel race each other head to head on December 22 and January 1 and you can also see Pidcock and Van de Poel battle each other on January 7 and January 21.

Of course there are far more riders than just these three crowd-pullers. In fact Cyclocross has its own field of dedicated stars who race week in week out across the whole season.

Established names such a current World Cup leader Eli Iserbyt, Michael Vanthourenhout, Lars Van de Harr and younger talents like Pim Ronhaar, Joris Nieuwenhuis and the British sensation Cameron Mason all ensure the racing is pulsating from start to finish.

This year the talent runs deeper down the field than ever before and every race has been a classic encounter, so be sure to tune in while you digest your turkey and get your fix of cycling in the mud.

World champion Van der Poel is down to ride all these events as he prepares to defend his rainbow bands and he will go head-to-head with Van Aert and Pidcock on December 23 in Antwerp, on December 26 in Gavere and on December 30 in Hulst.

These are the only three World Cup races where the ‘big three’ as they are called will face each other, however, they will all clash once more on January 4 in the sand dunes of Koksijde at round five of the X2O trophy, one of the other three season long series’.

The most important races on the Cyclocross calendar are the World Cup events and there are six of these left as follows:

December 24, 2023: Antwerpen (BEL)
December 26, 2023: Gavere (BEL)
December 30, 2023: Hulst (NED)
January 7, 2024: Zonhoven (BEL)
January 21, 2024: Benidorm (ESP)
January 28, 2024: Hoogerheide (NED)

The three other big competitions that run right up to the end of February are the Superprestige series, the Exact Cross and the X2O Series on the following dates:

The Telenet Superprestige (all BEL)