Here’s something that slipped our attention but on January 27 downhill mountain biking was on terrestrial TV. It’s not very often we get to say that but  the amount of mainstream coverage of mountain biking does seem to be increasing, look no further than the Athertons’ appearance on the Clare Balding show for example.

This footage comes from Channel 4’s World Sport. As far as we can tell, the show is pretty similar to Trans World Sport except it’s produced by Gillette with a focus on “precision in sport” (it’s almost as if it’s trying to sell something…)

Anyway, in the first episode of season two there was a section with Dave Watson in which he discusses the history and development of downhill mountain biking. It may not go into any great depth or nuance but considering it was on a mainstream TV channel we think Gillette did a respectable job.

Watson outlines the origins of the sport, what separates the good riders from the great riders and the technological developments that have got us to where we are today. There’s a large selection of videos on the Gillette World Sport YouTube Channel including videos on cross country and freeride which are also well worth checking out.