One of more confusing landscapes to navigate these days is the evolving world of sports streaming. If you can't travel across the Atlantic Ocean and find an opening in the crowd on a mountain climb or at a sprint finish, how can you follow the action? And in many places across Europe, you can no longer just turn on a television to watch a local broadcast.
Streaming has made it easier to be a fan of cycling, but also harder at the same time. It is also an investment to watch from the comfort of your handheld device or smart TV.
In the US in particular, once GCN+ went away more than a year ago, it seemed to get tougher to locate a race, from cyclocross to road racing. Most mountain bike and gravel races were left to piece together using social media videos and snippets of written updates.
There are now three main players for US viewers to find live coverage of professional races around the globe in 2025 - FloBikes, Max and Peacock. They have carved out their own turf with licencing agreements among notable race organisers, from ASO, RCS, Flanders Classics, but not all the partnerships have consistent geographical rights so there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
In general, FloBikes will broadcast Flanders Classic road races (Tour of Flanders, Amstel Gold Race) and UCI mountain bike and cyclocross World Cup events, Peacock will carry ASO races (Critérium du Dauphiné, Tour de France, Vuelta a España) and Max, the streaming arm for Warner Bros. Discovery, has RCS Sport and other races (Giro d'Italia and Giro d'Italia Women).
If basic, yearly subscriptions were purchased for all three streaming services (plans with ads and using the standard retail value), the total for the set would come to $449.94, plus tax.
Of course, you can piece together different plans for specific months, say one month of Max to watch the Giro d'Italia Women, one month of Peacock to watch the Tour de France and then one month of FloBikes to watch US BMX Nationals, which would make a dent of about $57.97, plus tax. It then becomes a game like a cross-word puzzle of patience to manage apps.
Max used to offer a Basic With Ads plan and a B/R Sports add-on to stream live sports programming, but the add-on has been discontinued since the spring. In order to watch pro cycling, or other sports, a Standard Plan, at $169.99 a year, or Premium Plan, at 209.99 a year, is required.
Cyclingnews takes a look at what plans are available, which top races are included with each service and if there are any specials to entice your selection.
FloBikes
FloBikes began live and on-demand coverage for professional cycling in 2017, a vertical streaming channel under the FloSports umbrella. For cycling content, FloBikes has partnerships with ASO, UCI, and Flanders Classics, but the majority of those race rights are restricted to Canada. In the US this past year, programming included UCI Cyclocross World Cup races, UCI Track Champions League and USA Cycling national championships events and other select European road races.
A bonus with FloBikes is that subscribers receive access to other FloSports programming, such as motorsports, college sports and other amateur and pro events, according to a company spokesperson.
"We have 40,000 events a year across a bunch of different sports. The top verticals are FloRacing, FloCollege, which launched in October, FloHockey and FloWrestling. With FloRacing, we have pretty much every motorsports category, including dirt track, short track, sprint car; no Formula One," Brian Reinert, VP of Corporate Communications, told Cyclingnews.
Pro account (with ads) - $29.99/month or $1149.88/year
Reinert did confirm that the schedule of races currently listed on the FloBikes website generically references overall rights in North America, and since the majority of events are for Canadian subscribers only, this causes confusion if US viewers are deciding what they can watch. The company was looking to "get in the weeds on this" and manually adjust programming restrictions based on either Canada or the US.
In July FloBikes offers two BMX competitions for US subscribers - the USA Cycling BMX Land O'Lakes Nationals and the UCI BMX Racing World Championships - with road events returning to the August calendar.
A bonus for a subscription allows for streaming on up to 12 devices in the same household, which is more than double the other streaming services.
Major races on FloBikes 2025
- Tour de La Provence, February 14-16
- Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, March 1
- Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Women, March 1
- Gent-Wevelgem, March 30
- Gent-Wevelgem Women, March 30
- Amstel Gold Race, April 20
- Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition, April 20
- UCI MTB Bielsko Biala, May 18
- USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships (Elite Crits), May 23
- UCI MTB Nove Mesto, May 24
- USA CRITS Finals: Winston-Salem Cycling Classic, May 24
- USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships (Elite Road Races), May 26
- UCI MTB Leogang, June 6-8
- Tour de Suisse Women, June 12-15
- UCI BMX Racing World Championships, July 28
Max
In late December 2023, Global Cycling Network closed their popular GCN+ streaming service, a measure taken by parent company Warner Bros. Discovery to consolidate programming. For subscribers in Europe, cycling fans moved to Discovery+ and Eurosport to follow races, such as the spring Classics – though it has subsequently been announced that Eurosport will close for UK viewers. For the US audience, Max has been reconfigured the past two years, first offering a Bleacher Report Sports add-on (B/R Sports), boasting 300 broadcasts of the 'biggest cycling race events', for all plans, and then scrubbing the add-on in 2025 so that sports was included in only two of their three plans.
Max, which began as HBO Max in 2020 by Warner Bros. Discovery, integrated live sports from Discovery Channel and new TNT and TBS affiliations two years ago, to create a broad array of programming from pro sports leagues (MLB, NHL, NBA), NCAA basketball, US soccer national matches and other sports. Max continues with a robust offering of cycling events, which includes more than 300 races for road, mountain bike, track, cyclocross and BMX competitions worldwide.
The Basic With Ads plan does not provide access to sports programming any longer, but the Standard and Premium plans both include sports, without additional add-on purchases. In the US in July, several BMX competitions are available to watch.
Standard - $16.99/month or $169.99/year (16% savings)
Premium - $20.99/month or $209.99/year (16% savings)
The July lineup on Max for US subscribers, with either the Standard or Premium plans, begins July 6-13 with the Giro d'Italia Women, all stage coverage beginning at 6:50 a.m. EDT. There will also be daily coverage of the Baloise Ladies Tour from July 16-20, beginning at 8:00 a.m. EDT.
Max ad-free plans, the Standard Plan for $169.99 a year and the Premium Plan for $209.99 a year, offer streaming on two or more devices, but only the Premium Plan allows streaming on two devices. The Basic Ad-Free option is $16.99 per month, but does not provide live sports.
Major races on Max 2025
- Strade Bianche, March 8
- Strade Bianche Women, March 8
- Tirreno–Adriatico, March 10-16
- Milan–San Remo, March 22
- Milan-San Remo Women, March 22
- Giro d'Italia, May 9-June 1
- Giro d'Italia Next Gen, June 15-22
- Giro d'Italia Women, Juy 6-13
- Tour de Romandie Féminin, August 15-17
- Il Lombardia, Oct 11
Peacock
NBC Sports and NBCUniversal's streaming platform Peacock launched a six-year extension with Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) in 2024 to remain the exclusive US media rightsholders for the Tour de France, with live start-to-finish coverage for every stage through 2029.
Also in the stable of ASO stage races for the US audience are the Tour de France, Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, Vuelta a España, La Vuelta Femenina, Paris-Nice and Critérium du Dauphiné. Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Roubaix Femmes lead a collection of one-day races on the broadcast schedule, as well as La Fleche Wallone, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Paris-Tours.
Peacock Premium (with ads) - $7.99/month or $79.99/year (16% savings)
Premium Plus (no ads) - $13.99/month or $139.99/year (16% savings)
Full coverage of the Tour de France takes centre stage in July, where Peacock is the only place for US viewers to watch live action of the Grand Tour. Programming begins on July 3 with the Tour de France Teams Presentation from Lille, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. EDT. All 21 stages of the Tour de France will be shown, July 5-27. The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift will be shown as well, July 26-August 3.
The Peacock Premium subscription is available as a one-year plan starting at $79.99, which offers ad-supported live sports as well as video-on-demand offerings.
The Premium Plus plan has most ads excluded, with limited exclusions for sports, events and other programming. Both plans offer movies and Peacock original programming other than sports, plus two of the year's Grand Tours.
Major races on Peacock 2025
- Paris-Nice, March 9-16
- Volta a Catalunya, March 24-30
- Paris-Roubaix Femmes, April 12
- Paris-Roubaix, April 13
- Vuelta España Femenina, May 4-10
- Critérium du Dauphiné, June 8-15
- Tour de France, July 5-27
- Tour de France Femmes, July 26-August 3
- Vuelta a España, August 23-September 14
Live race streaming schedule for US
Date |
Race |
Broadcaster |
|---|---|---|
July 3 |
Tour de France Teams Presentation |
► Peacock |
July 5-27 |
Tour de France |
► Peacock |
July 6-13 |
Giro d'Italia Women |
► Max |
July 11 |
USA Cycling BMX Land O'Lakes Nationals |
► FloBikes |
July 16-20 |
Baloise Ladies Tour |
► Max |
July 26-August 3 |
Tour de France Femmes |
► Peacock |
July 28 |
UCI BMX Racing World Championships |
► FloBikes |
How to use your US streaming subscription wherever you are
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. But that doesn't mean you can't watch the races.
In this case, a VPN will come in handy. A Virtual Private Network – to give it its full name – allows your computer to pretend it's in a different country, letting you log into your streaming accounts to catch all of the racing action.
Our expert colleagues at TechRadar recommend using a VPN for streaming as well as enhanced cyber-security – they know a thing or two about VPNs and right now they rate NordVPN as the best VPN on the market.
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
