Is Mountain Biking better than Road riding? Can one truly be better than the other? Yes, of course. Road trumps MTB hands down.
Personally, I disagree with Mark and Jenks when they say that criteriums are the ultimate form of bicycle racing. I'll take "aggressive and epic" over "patient and reactionary" any day. I'd rather be the protagonist. More on that some other time.
Today, however, it is time for me to play the traitor. I will leave the ranks of Jenks and Will, and join our nefarious opponents, Cap'nChaz and HardtailJay. I will discuss the beauty of the MTB.
Let me first note that MTBing remains stoopid. If road racing is a chess match, then MTBing is a game of paddleball. If you make a mistake in a road race, a wise competitor will take advantage and close the door on you. A MTB mistake is like a missed paddleball bounce... simply pick up where you left off. Where's the drama? The esprit d'guerre?
I'll confess that my opinion in this matter is rather skewed by the fact that I'm a horrible MTBer. HardtailMike has described a MTB race as "GO GO GO"... my version would have to be "GO GO crash remount GO crash etc". Maybe it's because I'm colorblind and can't detect obstacles as well as you normals. Maybe it's because I don't ride the MTB enough to ingrain the skillz. It's just not fun to do a ride where you can never get into a rhythm because you keep yardsale-ing.
The one and only redeeming facet of MTBing is singlespeeding. On a road bike, gears let you maintain a comfortable cadence but still focus on the tactics, and shifting becomes almost subconscious. While MTBing, the gears offer a similar cadence-normalizing functionality, but the nature of the terrain forces the shifting to be much more attentive. Maybe not for the good MTBers, but certainly for me. Shifting just distracts from the experience.
Like any good Spartan, I'll take the simpler option. Given the choice, I'll always singlespeed. Put the bike under my butt, point me towards the trail, and I'm a happy boy. If I want to get up a hill, I'd better pedal hard. If I want to go fast, I'd better spin like a crazy person.
MTBing, then, becomes a very pure experience. I would compare it to yoga, or to marathon running. It hurts, certainly moreso than geared MTBing, but it is far more zen.
I messed up my singlespeed last year. It was on its last legs, and it failed rather spectacularly. I've gone MTBing once since then, sorta; Chaz, HermesChris, and I took our cyclocross bikes to Hartshorne and rode like fiends among the incredulous full-suspension riders. It was fun, but it was far too cerebral.
I don't want cerebral. I want ommmm.
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5 comments:
I didn't author or co-author Mark's post. I do not think criteriums are the ultimate form of bicycle racing. Were I to choose, I would probably say that a 15k points race was the ultimate form of bicycle racing. Or maybe the kilo (thought the IOC apparently disagrees). But that's just me.
mmm, i think cyclo-cross is the ultimate... you all lose.
Dear 2005 Raleigh Talus and Kona 2-9er,
You will soon be ours.
I didn't say ultimate. I said beautiful.
Cross is, of course, the ultimate.
cross is the ultimate. mmmmmm yummy
but there is a joy to being in the woods, the quiet, the shrieking as a stick drives its way under your skin and hits bone. . .
no really. i imagine it's like skateboarding or surfing, although i bite at those, but there is a flow to the trail and there is a wonderful feeling when you body english a bump or a rock. it is zen to me. it clears my mind. i know this b/c the times i've tried to compose my blog entry while mt biking, i've eaten shit.
that being said. sometimes the bugs and sweat and ickyness drives me to find joy on the road bike.
there was joy in surfing the back of that tandem last night too, but sure as HELL not zen.
smootchies!
m
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