Call of a Life Time Season 2 Drops Tomorrow! Here's What You Need to Know.
Seven events, 70 of the best off-road cyclists in the world, $250,000 on the line. Can season two of the Call of a Life Time series live up to season one’s popularity? Absolutely—and we’d argue that season 2 actually surpasses its predecessor by a mile.
The six episode docu-series, “Call of a Life Time” premieres tomorrow—Friday, January 26, 2024—and those trapped on the trainer in wintery climates rejoiced. With GCN+ being shut down for the last month, this new (and free) series to stream feels almost as good as a breath of fresh air while pedaling in your basement pain cave. Watch it on YouTube here.
“We’ve been really excited with the growth from the following and fans of the Life Time Grand Prix and the excitement about the Call of a Life Time, and also just the athlete interest in there races from a participation standpoint,” says Michelle Duffy, Senior Director of Brand Marketing for events at Life Time. “We had a lot of exciting storylines that occurred throughout the year, which I think made it really fun for people to follow in real time, and gave people something to look forward to in the upcoming video series.”
Last year, after the success of the inaugural Life Time Grand Prix and the excitement over the Call of a Life Time series, Duffy says there was never a question of if there would be a season two for both. “It was never even a discussion if we were going to bring it back. It was just about asking, ‘What more can we do?’”
The first season of Call of a Life Time brought in roughly 100,000 views for each episode, with some being more popular than others. Coverage of Unbound—arguably the best-known gravel race in the U.S.—has 176 thousand views, while the lesser-known Chequamegon MTB race has 98,000 views. This is unfortunate, since the way Season 1 was structured, race coverage focused on men for one race, then women for the next, et cetera.
The way the season happened to play out meant that Unbound and Leadville coverage would focus on the men, while Chequamegon and Crusher in the Tushar would cover the women’s field. Naturally, fans were dismayed.
But both the series’ director and Life Time’s event staff were quick to realize that this was a problem and rectified that for season 2. Instead of covering each race in-depth, the series will have multiple episodes devoted to Unbound and Leadville, as well as Sea Otter Classic and Big Sugar.
Six episodes, equal airtime for the men and women
“When we launched the Grand Prix, we made a committed investment to ensuring parity across the board, making sure that we were giving men and women equal coverage equal price plus equal focus. In season one of Call of a Life Time, how the series focused on each event was based on the way they naturally fell, it wasn’t intentional, but it was something we knew we needed to address in season two,” says Duffy.
“We knew that we needed to do something to ensure that people didn’t either gravitate to the event that they wanted to watch, or the gender that they wanted to watch,” she adds. “So the way that we’ve structured it this year, we have a combined first episode, then a men’s and women’s at Unbound and a men’s and women’s at Leadville, then a combined episode covering Big Sugar. It’s important to note that the story arc to Unbound really requires viewers to watch both the men’s and women’s episodes, and the same is true for Leadville.”
Season two also brings in athletes from Europe and Australia who’ve relocated to the U.S. for the season to join the series—but while they present some interesting storylines, it’s more what their presence suggests about gravel in the U.S. that has Duffy excited.
“I think that giving domestic talent and ability to grow and stay here in the United States is a flip of the script from what we’ve seen in the past,” she says. “To say like you can be a successful international level cyclist and live in the United States is something new. The goal has always been in order to become a pro cyclist, you go to Europe and you stay there until you no longer have a contract. So I think having this opportunity here for domestic riders is really important.”
Having international riders take part not only feels like a seal of approval on the Grand Prix, it brings in more fans from around the world. “In the United States, we’re trying to get people who ride bikes to care about professional cycling, and that’s happening,” Duffy adds. “But we also want to tap into and unlock the millions of people who already care about professional cycling and say, ‘Hey, check out what’s happening here in the U.S.’ The international riders in the series help assert that.”
If you’re wondering why you would watch a series about races you’ve already watched highlights from and followed online, Duffy has a simple answer for that: We don’t watch Drive to Survive or Unchained on Netflix to find out how the F1 season finished or how the Tour de France went down. We watch for the human element, the stories that we missed during the live coverage of the event.
“The vision statement of the Grand Prix is to generate fandom of these elite athletes,” Duffy says. “We can’t grow fans without showing you who the athlete is off the bike.”
If you’re in a major city in the U.S., you may even be able to head out to a watch party!
Call of a Lifetime watch party locations
Chicago, IL
Rapha Chicago - Jan 26 | 7:00 PM CT
1714 N Damen Ave, Chicago, IL 6064
Bentonville, AR
Specialized Experience Center - Jan 26 | 6:00 PM CT
240 S Main St Suite 170, Bentonville, AR 72712
Boulder, CO
Rapha Boulder - Jan 26 | 6:00 PM MT
1815 Pearl St, Boulder, CO 80302
Emporia, KS
Merchant Cycles - Jan 26 | 6:00 PM CT
716 Commercial St, Emporia, KS 66801
Los Angeles, CA
Rapha Santa Monica - Jan 26 | 6:00 PM PT
1347 4th St, Santa Monica, CA 90401
Miami, FL
Rapha Miami - Jan 26 | 7:00 PM ET
3802 NE 1st Ave, Miami, FL 33137
New York, NY
Rapha New York - Jan 26 | 7:00 ET
159 Prince St, New York, NY 10012
San Francisco, CA
Rapha San Francisco - Jan 26 | 6:00 PM PT
2198 Filbert St, San Francisco, CA 94123
Scottsdale, AZ
Bicycle Haus - Jan 26 | 6:00 PM MT
7113 E 1st Ave Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Seattle, WA
Rapha Seattle - Jan 26 | 6:00 PM PT
301 E Pine St, Seattle, WA 98122
You Might Also Like
