im a cyclist,i ride the road and mtbs,im alot better at going down single track than i am a road cyclist but do on average 2 rides a week on the road mainly training,high mileage or short and fast

but ive had enough of seeing or hearing of mates getting knocked over on the road so im quitting road riding,but a little worried i might lose some of my speed

who does all there riding/training on a mtb and gets good results

but ive had enough of seeing or hearing of mates getting knocked over on the road so im quitting road riding

That is a shame.

I used to……until I got a road bike last winter. I’m waaaay quicker now. Off road for skills , on road for fitness…….and bmx for giggles.

One of our sales guys here in the office was third overall in the Sport Cat in NPS XC series this year, he never trains on the road.

Fast enough?

There’s always the inbetweeny bit, riding fireroads and non technical bridleways off road?

I quite like just doing a 20 mile loop mainly on fire roads with maybe one trail at the end just to keep me motivated.

*no traffic
*less chance of running out of skill on a trail
*less mud so less drivetrain wear

+1 for notaspoon… I night ride twice weekly, approx 30-mile not-too-technical off-road route. If you include hills and a bit of friendly competition your training shouldn’t suffer. Luckily my mates are faster than me so that keeps my fitness levels up!

Apparently Julien Absalon only rides off road. I think he probably meets the fit and fast criteria.

Define fit & fast?

I ride almost exclusively on MTB only using the road when necessary and came in the top 10% in a recent enduro which was my first race of the year and first big ride for several months.

Apparently Julien Absalon only rides off road. I think he probably meets the fit and fast criteria.

Not sure about that…

http://pro-35.blogspot.com/2011/05/absalon-part-3.html

Hi Folks

Just joined

I left the road scene after 20+ years of time trialing. I left because the training environment has grown incredibly hostile. My current perception of 90% of drivers is that they hate you on ‘their’ roads and would gladly laugh at the thought of another cyclist being killed, it would be one less in the way, sounds harsh but it’s a grim reality. I’d achieved everything I was going to in time trialling, wasn’t getting faster so in a snap decision, sold everything and bought a full suss trek…and more recently a no suss single speed, and I haven’t looked back.

In answer to the OP, I was very fit as a tester, but have lost none of it by riding 100% on trails, in fact, some aspects of my fitness have increased dramatically, such as short term explosiveness and climbing ability

Stay off the roads if you don’t like them, they’re full of muppets

Me

Now now Stuart, don’t let actual verifiable facts get in the way of a good old road v offroad training argument !

Play the game son.

Now now Stuart, don’t let actual verifiable facts get in the way of a good old road v offroad training argument !

Play the game son.
Well I guess i’ll see the result first hand…just got me a road bike so see if it makes me any fitter…

I’m struggling to think of any notable racers, all the ones I know do plenty on the road.

Martin Delves, who was a dominant Sport racer in 2009 didn’t use the road, he’d have held his own in Elite frankly.

I know a guy in the US called Nick Gibson. Fast as hell, never touches a road bike.

I guess it depends on what your discipline is too.

i know a few mates who are quicker than me that dont road ride,i think i just need to concentrate when im out on the mtb sometimes and make a note to ride harder and make sure i go out with my quicker mates often.

if im on the mtb i sometimes just chill with whoever im riding with knowing ill be on the road the next day or so

ive got a few pounds worth of road bikes to sell now aswell

as long as your choose bridleways and smoother stuff to train on then you can keep up the same sort of ‘relentless’ pace that you would on a road bike, you just have to avoid the temptation to hit the singletrack and fun stuff during a training ride.

Me.

Apart from the fast and fit bit.

seeing or hearing of mates getting knocked over on the road so im quitting road riding

That is a shame.

+1.

Hear about way more crashes and injuries from off road riding.

My current perception of 90% of drivers is that they hate you on ‘their’ roads and would gladly laugh at the thought of another cyclist being killed

Ime it seems the other way around 😐 If I never rode on the road I wouldn’t get out much over winter as the local trails become unridable.

Lock..are you anywhere near a velodrome? join a club and hammer around the track. Nice and warm in the winter too

Hear about way more crashes and injuries from off road riding.

Not sure you’re comparing like with like though.

Most off-road crashes tend to be low-speed, where there’s a bit of blood and some bruises. It’s very rare for anyone to get seriously injured off-road, though it can obviously happen.

On road……you’re travelling a lot faster, and landing/sliding on tarmac can remove a lot more skin. Plus you have cars, who can obviously cause an accident and/or magnify the effect of a crash. Plus, I’ve yet to fall off due to ice on singletrack.

Surely the problem with ‘training’ on an mtb is that you are going too hard…Road miles you can build base and stuff like that and keep your heart rate in the required robot zone 😉 (Thats me too)

I know that if I road a lot it makes me faster on a road bike but doesn’t actually cross over to the Real Bike in a 1 to 1 process. However, I race European enduro and need fitness and bike handling.

The theory circulating when I used to train loads was to do with recovery. You batter your body a lot more offroad, using different muscles etc, and at high level it’s all about recovery. On the road you can get a smoother more sustained workout without quite so much muscle fatigue, thus less recovery and more efficient training.

And saying that person A who only trains offroad is faster than a person B who only trains onroad, therefore only training offroad is better, demonstrates a poor understanding of science and frankly cause and effect in general. If you had a pair of identical twins raised under the exact same conditions who ate the same, did all the same hours of training etc and one was faster using one training method, then I might buy the theory !

And there is less washing and phaffing about with boring mechanical stuff on a road bike, which is a more significant factor in my view.