Anyone do both and if so which one benefits the other the most?

Last road race I did what I’d learnt unconsciously in XC and cross, it really paid off. i.e racing road in pouring rain on a twisty circuit. Those in my age group looked very uncomfortable on the turns. I found it a non issue.

Yet when I rocked up for my first XC race last year I had my arse royally handed to me on a plate. Fitness on the road didn’t seem to count for much.

Six of one and half a dozen of the other – depends on courses of both, hills, size of hills, steepnees of hills, regularity of hills, nature of how each race pans out – fragmented groups, varying pace, steady pace etc….

Do both 🙂

I always found that racing XC i had to hold back a bit to keep the riding smooth and if i pushed as hard as i did on my road bike my riding would get too ragged

I find them both quite different. Road is more steady state power whereas XC is hard sprint followed by hard sprint. So maybe crit racing and XC compliment each other better than open road racing and XC. Pedalling techniques are quite different in both but if anything I think XC benefits road riding more than the other way round.

Road racing; efforts are generally more constant, and less spikes compared to xc which has a lot more spikes and drops.

here is my race file from the last British XC Rnd 2 with power/hr/cadence

CLICKY

Crits follow a similar pattern with the surges etc but this also depends where about you are in the groups, closer to the front you will have less spikes compared to if you were at the back.

What power meter is that? Output seems a lot lower than I’d expect frankly!

Quarq, 59kg 5.4 W/kg for the first hour

16th in Elite

Avg power on it is low, but its not really relevant on mtb as it will vary on the course.

NP power is used more.

the graph above isn’t mine if that’s what you meant.

as 220watts avg is very very low for a race.
its the link below.

Alex

What was different for you about laps 4 & 5 of the xc race? Your HR profile is relatively similar for laps 1-3′, but changes after that. I love training peaks. 🙂

I was with another rider and a did less work compared to the other laps,
then the last lap another ride caught us and a went with him and ended in sprint finish. as last lap was faster then 5/6

Its my first year as elite so i was still unsure how hard i could go on in the last couple laps, so if anything a eased of when i could of gone harder.as its a big size jump from junior 3/4 laps to Elite 6/7 laps,

also at 1hr10 the hr was an error as i know it didn’t go above 200.

TP is great.