And are they any good at it?

I was pondering this on a ride last night

STW will know!

JC Peraud did the Tour and is also racing in the MTB Olympics.

A few have switched from MTB to road eg Cadel Evans.

Yeah quite a few do MTB stuff, especially the ex-MTB riders turned pro roadies. I guess it’s more for the distraction from road training rather than a serious addition to their normal training, I’m guessing not many of them ‘go big’ due to injury risks either.

As mentioned lots of the pro’s started off as mtbers and moved to road due to career prospects and money. Geraint Thomas is a great MTB talent however once hitting it as a pro on the road they don’t do much due to concerns of crashing although may ride more in the winter.

Just thinking it would be cool to meet one of the large thighed ones on a trail and whoop em on a downhill!

All that turning in different directions would surely confuse the hell out of a track cyclist!

Whoop ’em on a downhill?

…I guess we can all dream.

Not going to happen… Have you watched a world cup XC race?

GB

Just thinking it would be cool to meet one of the large thighed ones on a trail and whoop em on a downhill!

d’ya think so. Pro riders do have fairly good bike handling skills you know.

LOL nah only dreaming 🙂

Why does everyone assume that because they are pro track/road riders, that they can’t ride off road?

I’d bet a lot would be handier than most on here.

Robert Forsterman does (for 5 minutes).

I passed Julian dean in the sswc a coupe years back.

Right ok it was in the beer shortcut but nevertheless…..

I’m pretty sure Oli Beckinsale did alright in the Road National Champs a few weeks ago.

Lance does/did a fair bit of offroad IRC. When he did that shortcut over a field on the road down an alp Mr Ligget kept going on and on about it.

Mr Ligget is a cretin with dementia

The Schlecks ride offroad but I would imagine it’s just using the trail/forest path network around Luxembourg for fitness and variety than getting stormtrooper-ed up and hitting the bike park.

On the would they be quick PoV, I bet on an uplift day they may not be fast but I bet if you did a few laps of a trail centre XC route, their speed and endurance uphill would probably mean they could mince downhill and still whip most of us.

Sagan is pretty handy on an MTB.

You’re dreaming if you think you’d have them off-road.

Robert Forsterman does (for 5 minutes)

I imagine his coach is working on it now …
“Pay attention Robert, now this is a mountain bike”
“Was ist das?”
“They’re the brakes Robert, and these are the gears, you’ll need them for going uphill”
“Was ist ein hill?”

Remember seeing a POV of a German roadie hitting the trails in Germany. I mainly watched it too see how gingerly he’d take the DH sections.

He was quite decent 😯

JC Peraud did the Tour and is also racing in the MTB Olympics.

Didn’t the commentators mention this as a loophole the other day in the road race. France were entering lots of riders in different categories so they had a bigger pool or something?

Sagan is pretty handy on an MTB.

he beat a load of guys in a mountain bike race with his sisters bike

Sagan drew a significant amount of attention when he appeared at the Slovak Cup with a bicycle borrowed from his sister. Sagan had mistakenly sold his own and had not received a spare from the Velosprint sponsor in time. He won the race despite riding a supermarket bike with poor brakes and limited gearing

There is a great POV film from Levi Leipheimer descending off road with Lance, both of thm have won the Ledville 100 off road race.

Didn’t the commentators mention this as a loophole the other day in the road race. France were entering lots of riders in different categories so they had a bigger pool or something?

No JC Peraud quailfied in his own right with top 20 finishes in a number of world cup races.

It was their sprinter that needed to start in the road race so he could race the madison/kerin on the track. (can’t remender which one, someone correct me)

Fuglsang has done well at the CapeEpic on several occasions, the lovely Pia Sundstedt is also a reasonably handy mtb’er and cross country skier.

I’m sure i read somewhere that Cadel Evans had a slow start to this season due to recovering from an injury that was caused by a mtb crash, and i think one of the french road teams, maybe Europcar, were sent Cx racing in the winter by their managment to help improve fitness and cycle handling skills.

I’m not trolling but I suspect some folk here believe they could out run some pros on some techy trails (and not full on DH tracks). Highly likely many hobbyists can do this once or twice, but I think the test is could you do it multiple times, at max effort, and without stopping? – I’m talking Strava KOM’ing EVERY trail, every time.

I’ve seen people moaning on how crap and easy the Olympic XC course is. I gather it isn’t that technical but how easy would it be on the 3rd lap when you’ve been passed by the entire pro field for the 2nd time?

FTR, I know my limits and make no claims about being able to keep up with anyone, on any type of bike, anywhere.

‘ve seen people moaning on how crap and easy the Olympic XC course is. I gather it isn’t that technical but how easy would it be on the 3rd lap when you’ve been passed by the entire pro field for the 2nd time

Agreed. The Dalby XC course this year wouldn’t be massively technical from a ‘trail centre weekend ride’ type scenario. But even on the first lap, when you’re lungs are looking for a way out of your rib cage and you hit that first pretty steep drop (Worry Gill) its a proper challenge. To hit it repeatedly whilst riding at absolute maximum means your technical skills have to be pretty good. Mine weren’t, but watching all the Elite riders hit it over and over again at the same speed was very impressive. You can’t ride >25 hours a week off road and not be any good.

Alex Dowsett turned up at a round the local Mud Sweat & Gears series a year or so back – anhialated the elite field and quite literally came past like a train…

I think in his mind it was just a time trial with bumps…

Jamie Staff former world champ bmxer turned olympic gold medalist track cyclist.

I don’t thik you would win him anywhere

Oh and the olympic XC course is neither crap nor easy…Everyone whos actually ridden it and raced on it has said how good it is, it’s prob one of the most demanding courses Ive ridden (and Ive raced extensively in the UK, Some in Europe and in the US)

Its not designed as a trail centre, its not designed to be ridden on 30lb 8 inch full suspension bikes – its an olympic XC course, and next year theres tohe possibility of it being included in the local race series – I cant wait…

Well bradley ain’t too hot

😀

Well bradley ain’t too hot

Plus he’s not got a helmet on. Won’t anyone think of the children?

Yes, but they will stop now that wiggo said they have to wear helmets 😉

Mtbers are the pinnacle of skill fitness and delusion in the cycling world.
Skills go the BMX’ers
Fitness/ability the roadies
Pie eating and ego’s the MTB’ers

Skills go the BMX’ers

Is that BMX racing or street/jumps etc? Cause I’d say some of the MTB freeriders would match them easily.

Skills go the BMX’ers

Really?

BMX raceing just looks like a case of being able to jump, then being able to jump big jumps (which is just progression of the same basic skill), and then the rest of their training seems to consist of gym work, velodromes* and raceing. From a skill perspective I reckon competative MTB is far more demanding with big jumps, and corners, drops, steep bits, climbing, etc etc, not just jumps and bermed corners.

*which to me look like harder work from a skills perspective.

Pro XC MTB’ers are a bit nuts, I remember riding the Seagull run at Swinely (which isn’t that technical, but is quite tight and twisty with plenty of off camber bits and a few ditches to cross) and being overtaken by a team of guys in head to toe Giant kit, they must have been doing 3x my speed, and riding it tighter than a team pursuit! No fuss, no drama, no skidding, they just rode everything at full pelt.

And those “jumps” are done on a rigid 20in single speed. 🙄

and those “jumps” are done on a rigid 20in single speed.

I know, I ride one, and I still think it involves fewer skills than than riding downhill (or even XC at a pro level).

when we say off road, are we saying mtb or cross, a good proportion of the belgians race cross in the winter, Roger Hammond was world junior cross champion. etc.