A brand new TV channel dedicated to all forms of cycling, CyclingTV, has just launched. And all you need to watch is your computer and a reasonably fast internet connection.

The channel carries all kinds of cycling programmes, from BMX to road racing. Programming is similar to a normal TV schedule, but you can also view items on the programme outside the scheduled time. Today there’s the BMX programme, Buckled, the recent UCI BMX Supercross from Woodward Pennsylvania and a programme on the 5th TransAlp Challenge is starting right about now. Next week some classic 1940s Italian road racing – featuring Fausto Coppi and Goino Bartali in head to head duels in the Giro d’Italia’s of 46, 47 and 48 – is going to be added to the mix.

The channel is free to watch, you just connect to the website and it launches the TV Channel Player which then detects your bandwidth and streams accordingly. It is a commercial channel though, so you do have to sit through a few adverts before you get to the programmes, the kids one is quite amusing – the first couple of times at least.

The player works on all PCs and also on Macs, but not to full-screen TV mode. We’ve found it works watchably on our office connection, but slower home connections may struggle.

Cycling TV is launching with ambitious plans for development. There are plans for a weekly news, lifestyle and results round-up from around the world and live coverage of events. One day soon, the bods behind it say, “we will be on your TV Channel menu just like BBC1”.

It’s very early days yet, but good luck to them.

Give the channel a test run for yourself at ‘http://cycling.tv, in fact, pop over there now if you can, it’s quite good at the mo.