Want to catch the action from many of the world’s most audacious and prominent gravel races without getting the dirt and grime splashed on your face? This wasn’t even an option two years ago. Organisers are now adding live broadcasts to extend their reach to a growing global audience.
Early adopters for live streaming included US races Unbound Gravel 200 in Kansas and Gravel Worlds in Nebraska. In 2022, three of the Life Time Grand Prix events – Sea Otter Fuego XC, Unbound Gravel 200 and Crusher in the Tushar – attempted broadcasts but remote courses led to technical challenges which caused Life Time to pull the plug and only use social media posts for the final events.
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“Not long ago, gravel racing lived in stories told at the finish line. In recent years, if you weren’t there, you only saw glimpses through Instagram live streams or story updates. Bringing live coverage to the sport with the incredible BCC Live broadcast team changed that,” Sofia Gibson, assistant lead promoter of Lauf Gravel Worlds told Cyclingnews.
Life Time Grand Prix
Four of the six races in this year’s Life Time Grand Prix will provide live coverage for the 2026 season, beginning with Sea Otter Classic gravel race on Thursday, April 16. The Monterey, California race takes place on a 30-mile course, with broadcast cameras following the men’s and women’s fields for all three circuits. The elite men start at 10:00 a.m. PDT and the elite women start at 10:30 a.m. PDT.
Organisers Life Time used support from Orange Seal last year for broadcasts at signature events Unbound Gravel 200, Leadville Trail 100 MTB and the finale at Big Sugar Classic, and those return later in the season using multiple cameras on and off the course as well as cameras aloft.
“It’s amazing to see helicopters and drones following races like Unbound and Big Sugar. It’s something I never imagined in gravel just five years ago,” former Unbound Gravel 200 winner Lauren De Crescenzo told Cyclingnews last year.
Sea Otter Classic launches the fifth season of the Life Time Grand Prix, with the invitation-only field, U23 riders and wild cards looking for valuable points to set the leaderboard.
Details on the trio of live streams for Grand Prix stops in Kansas, Colorado and Missouri will be confirmed later in the season. Last year the Unbound broadcast joined the elite races in progress at 10 a.m. CDT with nearly eight hours of racing action, Cameron Jones (Scott-Shimano) winning the elite men’s race and Karolina Migoń (PAS Racing) taking the women’s title.
Gravel Earth Series
The Gravel Earth Series leads the way with live streaming for all 11 of their events, a promise that was kept at Santa Vall for both days of the two-stage event near Girona, Spain. The series features 11 events in six countries, with live coverage shown on the official video platform at GravelEarthSeries.TV.
The next broadcast is scheduled for The Hills on March 28 for the 120km (74.5-mile) in Sardegna, Italy. Elite men will begin at 8:30 a.m. CET with elite women off the start line 10 minutes later.
On April 11 Gravel Desert will be featured from Huesca, Spain, then both days of The Traka, the 200km and 360km races, will be broadcast on May 1-2.
Both days of Santa Vall were broadcast, joining the elite women’s race in progress, 30 minutes after the starts each day, and captured the men’s starts, which took place an hour after the women. Replays of both stages are archived on the website, with Sofia Gomez Villafañe winning both stages and the GC for women, and her teammate Mads Würtz Schmidt winning stage 1 and the men’s GC.
Broadcast schedule for gravel races in April 2026
|
Date |
Race |
Start Time |
Location |
Channel(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
April 11 |
Gravel Desert |
8:30 a.m. CET |
Grañén, Huesca, Spain |
Gravel Earth Series TV |
|
April 16 |
Sea Otter Classic gravel race |
10:00 a.m. PDT elite men/ 10:30 a.m. PDT elite women |
Monterey, California |
Life Time YouTube |