Road Riding Improves Your Mountain Biking
I thought it was about time that I just came out and said it. Road riding has improved my mountain biking.
This past weekend, I got to see how much my recent road riding has really improved my mountain biking. Over the past couple of road rides, I have really concentrated on smooth circular pedal strokes under load. During these constant spins…I make sure that I am using as much upward pulling strokes as I am downward hammers. The result is a much more efficient spin that produces forward propulsion like I have never felt. The overall goal was to create more power by exerting less energy.
While I am on the mountain bike, it is harder to concentrate on pedal strokes as I am negotiating the trail. The road bike provides the perfect outlet to practice these skills and transfer them to my mountain biking. I started to notice that my road rides were less tiring than before, and I was able to pull/lead much easier than in the past.
So what were the trail results?
This weekend a group of eager riders headed up to Rich Mountain for the third time in 6 weeks. Rich Mountain…Stanley Gap, Flat Creek and Green Mountain…is known for technical climbing and descending. Even the best riders come to Rich knowing they are going to walk some climbing sections. This brutal epic in north Georgia really taxes every ounce of your body as you attempt to conquer the beast.
For this weekends ride, I brought up the Niner Jet 9 for a good thrashing in the mountains. My goal was to have my best ride to date at Rich and really test my training on the road bike. From the start of the ride, I concentrated on pedals strokes and form as we started the several mile, out of the gate ascent. By the top of the first long climb, all seemed well and my heart rate was more controlled than previous attempts. We continued down the first blazing downhill and I was able to really let the Jet 9 loose. To my surprise, this 80mm travel frame really rails on long, technical downhills. It rides like a longer travel bike.
The cross country setup of the Jet 9 allowed me to really get into a technical spin groove. The rest of the day went pretty much the same…great technical downhills followed by long climbs. Even with the group’s season high amount of flats, the day was going along flawlessly.
The last climb back over Rich Mountain is the worst. This technical climb is where you find most of the walking around Rich Mountain. From the start of this final climb, I made a mental goal for myself. I was not going to dab or walk at all through the first summit. This is something that I have only accomplished once in the past, and it came at the expense of my fitness for the last downhill. This time around, I wanted to have a dab free ride, but still be fresh for the final descent to the cars.
Incredibly…everything went very well…and by the end…I accomplished my goal. There was still a little bit of walking during the final section of climbing (there always is for everyone that rides this place) but I made it through all of the first hike-a-bike sections with ease. For the first time at Rich Mountain, I still had plenty of juice left for the final descent.
What did road biking do?
Road biking increased my cross country efficiency and endurance. By concentrating on form and miles on the road bike, I was able to have the best trip to Rich Mountain to date. I could actually feel the mountain bike pulling forward faster with each pedal stroke. This increased efficiency allowed me to keep more in the reserve tank for the rest of the ride without having to slow the pace down to a crawl. Road biking has also increased my awareness of pacing the ride to make sure I do not blow up before the end.
This trip to Rich Mountain solidified that road biking can increase your mountain biking skills if done correctly. However, your mountain biking skills do not…at this point…transfer to the road bike. About the only thing you can really transfer back over is some endurance and overall comfortable feeling on the bike.
I am going to continue to use these road miles to up my endurance and awareness on the mountain bike. Hopefully, over time…these same skills will continue to grow and my mountain biking will excel in this areas. Stay tuned to find out…
Pictures by Laurie
Tweet This
Digg This
Save to delicious
Stumble it
RSS Feed
Want to contribute content to mountain.bike198.com? Gain access to thousands of mountain bikers and be a part of a growing community by submitting guest tips and reviews on Bike198. Hit up the contact form to get started!
Other than my fascination with RAAM, I consider myself a mountain biker but I’ve pretty much always spent more time on the road. I can control my training much better on the road. When I’m training for long events, it’s not unusual for me to do 6+ hour training rides. The extra beating I take off-road makes it take longer to recover. Sure I still need to ride off-road to keep my skills up but I tend to do that on my shorter rides (1-2 hours). I love mountain biking so I don’t ever see being just a roadie.
@UltraRob
I completely agree…it is a lot easier to control training on road rather than off, but nothing replaces the feeling of great singletrack. I even stepped further into the roadie scene with a pair of spandex…but I am never going to go the shaved leg route.
@Ken
Those road miles are going to really come in handy with the TransRockies!
I totally agree – The main benefits I’ve found from the road are similar to yours, mainly surrounding pedal stroke/efficiency. Outside of climbing I find it makes a huge difference with traction as well – just being able to apply a constant load on the pedals ensures that your tires are staying rooted. Important on everyday, but especially on loose stuff or snow!
Yup, especially earlier in the season – The trails in the mountains aren’t really free of the white stuff until later in May, so getting some *real* hours in the legs prior to that will be happening on the road for sure.
When I first got into cycling as an adult I bought a mountain bike. I would go out in the woods and hammer along. I could usually only do 1 maybe 2 laps of the 3 mile loop at my local trail. Then I got a road bike. My endurance started improving rapidly. With mountain biking, it is hard to do long steady efforts that you really need to build real endurance on the bike. Road biking is the ticket.
I can’t agree more Robb!
I’ve only been riding a mountain bike on serious trails since August ‘08 and prior to that (apart from playing with a MTB that was well underspecced for my weight) almost all of my riding for the last 10 years has been on the road.
My enjoyment on the trails, and a desire to get generally fitter, got me back on the road bike (even bought a new one in December) and the improvements on the trail are coming in a torrent as opposed to a trickle.
The length of my rides on the roadie is soooooo much longer (65km in ~2 hours as opposed to ~30km in 2 hours) and without the terrain to worry about (except for glass, potholes and roadkill) it’s just spin, spin, spin for hours on end.
The difference I now feel in power on the MTB is incredible – hills and climbs that saw me spinning in a low gear, I now power up as is they weren’t there – after all – it’s only a few hundred metres – not kilometre after kilometre of constant gradient.
One of my regular MTB riding friends is now getting worried – I’m showing him up on our regular 18km loop and that’s after riding 50-60km in the morning on the roadie.
And while I must admit to only wearing lycra on both bikes (ditch the shorts Robb!), I do get the pleasure of upsetting some of the roadies by wearing a MTB jersey on the road (get some VERY strage looks when we have coffee – as a whole I find the MTB scene a whole lot more friendly and less pretentious than that of the road – very few riders on the road even acknowledge your presence, whereas on the trails everyone offers a G’day!)
Justin
@Justin
That is exactly what I am seeing too. A drastic improvement in fitness due to much longer rides (40-50 mile range).
I’ll never drop the shorts on the mtb! I do far too much tech riding and apart from the fashion statement…they also provide increased protection and they don’t rip in the event I go down (which can be a lot depending on the area). I do make a point to wear my MTBR.com jersey on road rides though!
I haven’t had any issues with tearing shorts or jerseys during crashes. Actually they usuall survive a good road crash unless you really slide a long ways.
In all my Midwest Fat Tire Series racing and other mountain biking, I’ve crashed a lot. Not one tear.
I crashed really bad into a bunch of brush and thorn bushes 2 summers ago and I only had a couple of snags from that but no tears. Usually I end up bleeding under the shorts from rocks.