I've always seen mountain biking as a sport you need a degree of toughness to do. Hard work uphills, technical ability, fitness and balls to ride downhill if you're going to do it at any pace. And an ability to deal with the fear of falling off. Not for the faint hearted.
Now I've been doing a fair few outings with the social group of my local road club and I'm pretty strong so i thought I'd go out with the more serious Sunday ride today. And b*gger me! Fast and furious. And they were absolutely ragging it downhill 35mph plus into corners. For 60 miles we barely let up.
Athletically speaking way harder than MTB and the handling skills on display were top notch…

CX riders they do essentially both.

Hard to shout. I'd say proper racing roadies need to be harder in their sport, you can't be a pussy in the bunch.
Yet MTBers certainly have bigger balls.

Try competing at either. Way hard. Regular riding is nothing in comparison.

roadies are harder, they are fitter, crashing hurts more and they are less caring about those who struggle. This is all based on my experience of being a regular rider in both. I also am of the opinion you need bigger balls on a road decent but that may just be me. Slow speed skills are often laughable amongst roadies though.

Try competing at either. Way hard. Regular riding is nothing in comparison.

road riding is a bit more calculated than mtb though IME – except for the erratics …

IME, roadies are harder. I found you need bigger balls to do a 45mph road descent in the Pyrenees with weeny little caliper brakes than Fort Bill DH.

I'D say the opposite! Mtb is steadier. Rr means you have to follow the pace, however hard it is.

I'd say roadies probably – they're stronger / fitter as a rule. You also need to be quite tough minded to go out road riding on your own as it's so **** boring, whereas solo mtbing doesn't present this challenge.

You've also got the crashes. It's quite possible to ride MTBs where the odds of crashing are really low. If you're an experienced rider who isn't that arsed about stretching the skillset, then crashes are rare. When they do occur they're not usually that bad. Crashes are relatively rare on the road, too, but when they do happen they can be much more serious. There's also the slim, but ever-present, threat of a motorist putting you in a box – an event that could be completely out of you control.

Road riding. More wind issues, bigger gearing and car drivers getting on yer t@ts 😉

From my own personal experience over the past 2 months whilst building up good "base" miles on the roadbike I'd say road'ing is mentally harder; hour after hour of solo sluggin it out in all weathers, mtbing easier to motivate for.

You mean people ride bikes on the road as well, blimey 😯

I must be the odd one out as I seem to enjoy road riding on my own but rather ride a mountain bike with friends.

There's only one way to find out…. FIGHT!!!!

Ding ding.
Looks like the mountain biker's win! 😉

road bois get my vote..them ther hills..L&H 1932

I've always seen mountain biking as a sport you need a degree of toughness to do

I'll stop you there 🙂
Take a look at your prototypical mountain biker. They're someone in their late 30's early 40's with a fat face, fat arse and wobble about the place for a few miles before talking up their effort down the pub.
Whereas roadies go out, kill themselves for a few hours, come back home and think brooding dark thoughts before going out again.
I take your point that the mountain biking is potentially tougher but I suspect the ones who actually make it tough are really closet roadies.

Road all the way.

I do both MTB is a lot of short sharp climbs (real men ride up hills and don't push) but road is long, open and windy.

That my 2 pence worth anyway.

I started off mountain biking in the early 90s and if we wanted to ride in the Peak district we had to ride out there from Manchester, do the ride then ride home again, so we were pretty fit, racing all over the UK, did the Grundig at Strathpeffer…

Then later I decided to road race and got hammered, got hammered in the training rides, got hammered in the chain gangs and got hammered in the races.

Then I got to be ok in the road races, then went road racing in Belgium and got bloody hammered again.

I would say, in my experience, road racing is way harder than mountain biking, and even more so these days as mountain bikes get ever more specialised so actually get ridden over fewer miles than back in the day.

Having said that, mountain biking can be as hard as you can make it, if you choose to make it hard..

Roadies have a lot of stamina and endure long, windy rides etc, BUT I'd like to see them attempt half the stuff that I've seen MTB'ers do.
Roadies = fitter
MTB'ers = tougher
(probably) 🙂

I would have to say that I think Mountain bikers are the rugby union players and the roadies are the premier league footballers thus the MTB boyz are hard but slow and the Roadies are well preened and can run circles around them.

…plus in days gone by, roadies tended to be from the working classes, whereas mountain bikers are largely middle clarse types. I have seen fights in sprints on the road, actual punches being thrown and connecting, and I have been offered lip balm at the start of a mountain bike ride.

I leave you to judge…

Hard? I'll give you hard. Rigid 29er riding 24hr solo riders, riding bikes I designed. Hard lads.

Came 2nd and 3rd in OSMM – Well done Twinklydave and Mr Terrahawk.

a few proper hard ba5tards…… 8)

just a few that spring to mind, cant seem to think of any hard mtb'rs.

Good call there ton.
I stood next to Andrei Schmil at the start of Gent Wevelgem his legs looked like wood.

Er, I was spectating…

roadies, by a mile. Even your common, run of the mill weekend rider knows pain like no other.

And as an example, Hinault. The guy beats up a load of dockworkers and then goes on to win a stage with some broken ribs.

As

Nails.

Road riding is more dangerous IMO.

never ridden any decent distance on the road, but i would just get bored i think. Roadies win for boredom resistance. Then again, hora is less likely to be on the roads than on the trails, so maybe road riding is safer. 😉

only a MTB would ask this question.

On the trail you meet roots, earth and stone.

On the road you asphalt is completely unforgiving, there is also stone (kerbs) and of course its not just a mistake that you make that could cost you dear……your life is literally in everyones hands who passes you…

All to serious.

Road Riders are malnourished, vapid and lack imagination. Plus they are slightly boring during post ride pub-chat whilst budgie-supping their half of real Ale.

MTB's are generally slightly overweight, have bigger balls, and are far more fun at the boozer talking over their trail heroics with a nice pint of cider.

All the best.

Road Riders are malnourished

PMSL 😆

+1 for CX bikers.

Mentalists, all of them.

Well mtb all the way. In less length you do more altitude gain with a bike that weight double, you can't have a rest in the downhill and most of the time falling is not an option…
My 2 p though

On the trail you meet roots, earth and stone.

On the road you asphalt is completely unforgiving, there is also stone (kerbs) and of course its not just a mistake that you make that could cost you dear……your life is literally in everyones hands who passes you…

Paris-Roubaix 😉 280km in roughly 6:30hrs. I've ridden it four times, twice as a pro and twice the amateur version. It makes all the mountain bike races I've ridden seem a piece of p!ss, ok I've not solo'd a 24 but then the Bordeaux-Paris isn't easy either.

I'm just moving from road to MTB I find an hour on off road harder physically than an hour on the road. It also requires me to think more whereas as on road requires (from me) more mental strength to push into that headwind etc.. But they're different disciplines, require different skills and mentalities.

Neither is better they just require different mindsets.

And I'm not giving up eiteher

just a few that spring to mind, cant seem to think of any hard mtb'rs.

What about the downhillers?

What about the downhillers?

who race for 10mins tops…………….yeah tough as **** them boys…… 😆

The downhill looked pretty tough today!