GCN+ and Eurosport Acquire Flanders Classics Rights

Not sure if this is really that newsworthy, but we did several years of Derailed, a magazine about the cycling media, so we might as well bang this one up on the site. Also we used to work with the person who secured these rights. He’s great. Discovery/Play Sports Group/Eurosport: if you’re reading this give him a pay rise. Ask him if he’s still got that elaborate pub he built in his shed too.

You might be surprised to learn that the rights weren’t already secured, since the GCN-Eurosport dyad already broadcast Omloop Het Nieuwsblad this year (albeit after initially announcing that they wouldn’t), and Eurosport has long broadcast the other Infront/Flanders Classics properties. But apparently cycling race rights are just as last-minute as they’ve always been, and the rights to Vlaamse Wielerweek races have just been secured right in the middle of the week.

If that all sounds very Cycling.TV, well… yeah. It does. There’s a reason.

ANYWAY. Eurosport and GCN have officially reached an agreement with Infront to broadcast Flanders Classics races in Europe and Asia (excluding China) for the next four years. Those races are:

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Gent-Wevelgem
Dwars door Vlaanderen
Ronde van Vlaanderen
Scheldeprijs
Brabantse Pijl,
Brussels Cycling Classic (we still remember this as Paris-Brussels)
Amstel Gold Race

That’s a pretty solid selection to have locked down for the next four years. And of course, GCN-Eurosport have every other race on the calendar too, more or less. It’s good news for the fans, and good news for those races too. And good news for Discovery Channel, but we’re not celebrating that.

A Bonus Joke

We were going to include this image with a caption of something like “oops, wrong GCN” but it felt a bit weak. Maybe CiclistaParvo could steal the joke and treat his readers to an image that looks vaguely like it’s been touched by a graphic designer.