“Absolutely disgusting”: Fans slam “facepalm moment” £370-a-year TNT Sports subscription to watch cycling as “exploitation”; Cyclists confused at New York path with two bike lanes… to separate faster and slower riders + more on the live blog

I thought being a Manchester United fan was hard. Turns out, being a cycling fan is also about to get hard — well, on the pockets.

Last night, it was announced that Warner Bros Discovery is set to shut down Eurosport, which had quickly become the home for all things pro cycling since 2023, and migrate cycling, along with snooker and tennis, to TNT Sports — as soon as 28 February.

> TNT Sports to put cycling behind £30.99-a-month paywall, as Eurosport coverage to end and future of free-to-air Tour de France remains unclear

The kicker is that those interested in just watching cycling will have to shell out the full premium price for the entire TNT Sports subscription package, which also includes Premier League, Champions League, Europa League, Premiership Rugby, MotoGP, UFC and boxing, meaning that the price goes from £6.99-a-month to an “extremely disappointing” £30.99-a-month.

This marks the latest in a series of steps that have left watching pro cycling in a sticky situation, first with Warner Bros shutting down GCN+ citing “changing media landscape”, and then the news that ITV will not broadcast Tour de France from 2026, as Warner Bros Discovery signed on exclusive rights until “at least 2030” on Eurosport, leaving free-to-air coverage of one of the world’s biggest sporting events in jeopardy.

> “Putting cycling behind a paywall is not how to grow the sport”: Fans react to “awful” and “disgraceful” news of ITV losing Tour de France rights, making Eurosport the exclusive UK broadcaster

The news hasn’t done much to win over fans who have already expressed disappointment at the state of things, with many road.cc readers reaching out and commenting on our social media posts claiming they are about to cancel their subscriptions — if they haven’t already.

Tony Weston wrote on Facebook: “Just cancelled my subscription. Can’t justify this kind of price hike when only interested in cycling,” while J-P Martins confirmed doing the same, adding: “In the past few years I've watched all three major tours, either live or in close catch-up, all the one-day classics, and a fair few cyclocross races.

“Reminds me of Test cricket, which I used to follow avidly when on free-to-air and haven’t seen since, or the Premiership, or international rugby. I love sports but a 10x price hike to £30.99-a-month — just no way does that fit my budget or discretionary spend plans.”

Dr Paul Johnson emailed road.cc saying: “In essence, if I want sports access I’ll have to move from the current cost of £6.99 a month to £30.99 a month, which is frankly beyond my means. Bearing in mind the apparent lack of free-to-air access for the tour de France from next year, this’ll be a further blow to anyone who is subscribing for cycling. I don’t want or watch the other sports, so it seems like an exploitation of current subscribers. Big sigh.”

Meanwhile, Yavor Mitev commented: “Another one of those great facepalm moments that ‘grow the sport’…”

What do you think about the pricing change and the future of watching pro cycling? Are you happy to subscribe to TNT Sports or are you planning to cancel your subscription — and if it’s the latter, how do you plan to watch cycling? As always, we are interested in your answers, so let us know in the comments!

There’s hardly been an easier consensus on a controversial pricing decision by a conglomerate, and while we don’t really know what Warner Bros Discovery were thinking when they decided to neuter Eurosport and migrate all its offerings to TNT Sports, increasing the price by an astonishing 342 per cent, we at least know how fans feel about it.

road.cc readers are continuing to share their thoughts on the topic, but now, the sprint finish of the first stage of the AlUla Tour posted by Eurosport on Instagram has attracted fans disappointed and exasperated by the announcement that they’ll need to pay £30.99 per month instead £6.99 — and they are going off.

“Thanks for making it more expensive to watch cycling in the UK.”

“This will be about as much as most folk will see of next season. Warner Bros are taking the mickey. Pure greed.”

“I did wonder if this would happen. Hugely disappointed cycling fans being expected to change from £7 to £31 per month to watch cycling, hence the anger. Absolutely NO justification other than greed. And very, very few are going to pay that much.”

Meanwhile, cycling writer, journalist and photographer Shane Stokes wrote: “Shame on you, Discovery and Warner. You destroyed Eurosport and are doing your utmost to destroy cycling.”

Ouch…

The AlUla Tour, the five-day stage race in Saudi which is more often than not a haven for sprinters, kicked off with Soudal Quick-Step’s Tim Merlier beating outJuan Sebastian Molano and Maikel Zijlaard to clinch victory in the first stage.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Eurosport Cycling (@eurosportcycling)

“It’s always nice to start the season with a win. It’ll motivate the team,” the European champion said after adding a third triumph to his two victories in the AIUIa Tour in 2024.

“It was as always, quite nervous in the first race of the season, it's difficult to do things perfectly but I think we did well.”

“At 1.8 kilometres to go I lost Bert [Van Lerberghe, leadout man] a bit, but then in the U-turn I was back on his wheel. He was in the wind for almost one kilometre so that was a perfect job on his part.”

Why do cyclists sometimes not use the separated lanes, you ask? 🤔 #yegbike

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— Connor M (@nunymare.bsky.social) 28 January 2025 at 05:40

The Antwerp Court of Cassation has ruled in favour of Sniper Cycling BVBA, the parent organisation of Wout van Aert’s former team, in the long-running case of the Belgian rider rather controversially leaving Verandas Willems–Crelan mid-season in 2018 to join Visma–Lease a Bike.

It was confirmed yesterday that the three-time cyclocross world champion has now been ordered to pay €662,000 for “wrongly” terminating his contract with his former employer, reports Velo.

Despite being touted as a big move in the Belgian cycling scene, with Van Aert tipped to become the next superstar with Visma, Nick Nuyens, manager of the Sniper Cycling group, wasn’t too happy with his decision, and ended up filing a petition in the same year, which has finally reached a resolution after much back-and-forth between different courts.

According to Nuyens, the move was unlawful and demonstrated “a breach of trust” by the employee towards the employer. His lawyers initially argued for a €1.2 million compensation, however, the Labor Court in Antwerp tried to settle the case with a €662k amount, ruling in Nuyens’ favour.

He appealed the decision to the Court of Cassation seeking the full amount, however, the court has refused to order further compensation but held up the original amount, which Van Aert will now have to pay to his former team boss.

The official ruling read: “On 13 January 2025, the Court of Cassation ruled in the case of cyclist Wout van Aert against his former employer/cycling team. The Court of Cassation rejected the cassation appeals of both parties against the judgment of the Antwerp Labour Court of 9 June 2021.

“With that judgment, the Labour Court sentenced Wout van Aert to pay a severance payment of 662,041.31 euros because he had wrongly terminated his employment contract for urgent reasons.”

You might know Reflex Nopinz, the road racing team of which road.cc’s video lead Jamie is a  part of, and they’ve knocked it out of the park with this post…

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Reflex Nopinz Race Team (@reflex_nopinz)

> Boost to cycling sales sees Halfords upgrade profit expectation