After Saturday's individual time trials, the cycling events at the Paris Olympic Games continue with the Mountain Bike racing. With the women’s event taking place on Sunday July 28 and the men’s event on Monday July 29, here’s how to watch Olympics Mountain Bike 2024.
There is only one mountain bike discipline included at the Olympic Games, and that’s Cross-Country, or XCO. Rather than the hair-raising descending of Downhill, Cross-Country is a mass-start format that sees the riders tackle climbs as well as descents on rough, technical terrain, making it an all-round test of power, endurance, and bike handling. In Paris, the racing will take place on a 4.4km circuit at Elancourt Hill, with the exact number of laps to be decided the afternoon before each race but both races to last in excess of one hour.
Dates: July 28, 29
Free streams: CBC (Canada), BBC (UK), Channel 9 (Australia)
USA: Peacock TV
UK: BBC, Discovery+
Australia: Channel 9
Watch anywhere: Try NordVPN, 100% risk-free
Tom Pidcock, who won the Olympic title in Tokyo at the last Olympics, is the favourite for gold in the men’s race, where he’ll face competition from the decorated veteran Nino Schurter, his Swiss teammate Mathias Flückiger, and the likes of Sam Gaze (New Zealand) and Victor Koretzky (France). On the women’s side, Pidcock’s Ineos stablemate Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (France) will be looking to end her run of Olympic heartbreak, but she’ll have to see off defending champion Jolanda Neff (Switzerland), the youngster Puck Pieterse (Netherlands) and her own compatriot Loana Lecomte.
This guide explains how to watch Olympics Mountain Bike 2024 wherever you are in the world, including details of how to use a VPN if you're away from home. For more from the other disciplines, find out how to watch cycling at the Paris Olympics.
Olympic Games Mountain Bike live in the USA
NBC hold the broadcasting rights for the Olympic Games in the USA. The Olympics Mountain Bike races will not be shown live on NBC's television channel, but will be available on the network's streaming service, Peacock TV.
Peacock TV offers a seven-day free trial for those who want to try before you buy. A full subscription to the service via Peacock Premium starts from $7.99 per month. The ad-free Peacock Premium Plus costs $13.99 per month.
NBC is available via cable plans and, if you're a cord-cutter, you can watch the network via Hulu ($7.99 per month with a 30-day free trial), DirecTV (from $64.99 per month with a five-day free trial), and FuboTV (from $74.99 per month with a seven-day free trial).
Olympic Games Mountain Bike live in Canada
If you live in Canada, you can catch the Olympics Mountain Bike racing across several broadcasters, including CBC, TSN, and Sportsnet.
CBC is set to show the women's race live on television on July 28, while it's unclear if the men's race will be shown on July 29 as it's part of a wider show taking in different sports. In any case, both events will be available online on CBC Gem. Access to the broadcaster's ad-free on-demand library costs $4.99 per month, though the ad-supported version is free of charge.
On TSN, only the men's race will be shown live on television, but both events will be available online via the TSN subscription service, which will set you back $19.99 per month or $199.90 per year.
Sportsnet does not have dedicated feeds for the races but they could be shown as part of the broadcaster's daily programming, which is available online with a Sportsnet SN Now subscription, costing $14.99 per month or $149.99 per year.
Olympic Games Mountain Bike live in the UK
In the UK, cycling fans will be able to watch the Olympics on the BBC for free. It is not yet certain whether the Mountain Bike races will be selected for broadcast on terrestrial television, but they will be available to stream online via the BBC iPlayer.
The Olympics Mountain Bike will also be streamed live on Discovery+. A 'standard' subscription to Discovery+, which includes Eurosport's cycling coverage, will set you back £59.99 per year, or, in a special Olympics deal, £3.99 per month to the end of 2024. The package includes year-round cycling streams as well as other live sports, including snooker, tennis, motorsports, and more.
A premium subscription, which includes all that plus TNT Sports (Premier League, Champions League and Europa League football plus rugby, wrestling, UFC, and MotoGP), costs an additional £29.99 per month.
Olympic Games Mountain Bike live in Australia
In Australia, cycling fans can watch the Olympics for free on Channel 9 and 9Gem.
It is as yet unclear whether the Olympics Mountain Bike racing will be shown on live television but viewers across the country can tune in to the 9Now streaming service across the smart device of their choosing to catch all the action from both events.
Watch the Olympic Games Mountain Bike live on any stream
If you are outside of your home region and need to access your live streaming services to watch the action, you may find your access to be geo-restricted.
In this case, a VPN service will come in handy, allowing your computer to pretend it's home and let you log into your streaming accounts to catch all of the racing action.
Our colleagues at TechRadar thoroughly tested several VPN services and came up with a few great recommendations below.
There are a couple other very good options that are safe, reliable and offer good bandwidth for streaming sports. Check out two other top options below - ExpressVPN and the best budget option, Surfshark.
