What’s “easier”, XC or Endurance?

And then SSers are just rolling roadblocks on the other 90% of the course.
have you ever heard of the supertuck?
giphy.gif

pretty much 39x11 on the downhillz
 
Much easier when your max amount of riding time is about 10 hrs a week... And if you race anything other than pro, you can fake your way thru... I mean you probably won't win, but good bike handling and a good first lap can actually make a difference.

XC is also far easier mentally... Other people to battle with, more adrenaline.... You need to be able to handle some dark places to do what Jim and other endurance racers do. I have done just enough 5+ hour races to know that after that long, I stop caring
I don’t think you can fake fitness. You may lose fitness but not your power/speed.
And then SSers are just rolling roadblocks on the other 90% of the course.
Right but not, revert back to what my reply to. It’s faster to ride a geared bike like an SS on the climbs and push a big gear easy in between. It’s not easy however as most geared guys blow up on the flats resorting to being seated on the climbs. And for the record an SS has won an NUE overall four times.
 
I obviously don't know jack shit about training or being fast, but can't you just ride your geared bike like a singlespeed sometimes? Just stand and hammer some climbs like you're on an SS?

Riding SS 75% of the time has made me a shitty geared bike rider. Every time I actively think of sitting and spinning up a hill I honestly feel like I'm going to topple over.

@Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST will constantly ride behind me when I'm standing and hammering reminding me that I do in fact have gears.

So yes, the answer is yes.
 
Riding SS 75% of the time has made me a shitty geared bike rider. Every time I actively think of sitting and spinning up a hill I honestly feel like I'm going to topple over.

So yes, the answer is yes.
You can just ride up the hill the same way as you would on an ss, BUT, on the flat and DH, you can blow the SS out of the water.

That being said, since you cant dump gears on an Ss, your only option is to stand up or bog down.
 
Last edited:
You can just ride up the hill the same way as you would on an ss, BUT, on the flat and DH, you can blow the SS out of the water.

That being said, since you cant dump gears on an Ss, your only option is to stand up or bog down.

Oh, to clarify, it makes me a shitty rider ON HILLS. I probably should be sitting and spinning, but standing and mashing is ingrained. In fact since I stopped doing road rides, my MTB rides are mostly on the SS I believe I've lost a ton of muscle strength in the regular cycling muscles. All my hard efforts now are done standing.

I'm not arguing SS is faster as I don't believe that to be true. Some courses I'll say maybe it's about equal.
 
Fast Twitch/Slow Twitch. I may be the Prime exmple of a competitve Cat1 XC Racer turned the other way around. Now I get dropped on most MTB rides.

Jim, Think I was out of the sport when you were racing X/C but weren't the race in the 2.5 to 3 hr range at that time, opposed to the current preferred < 2hr range? Do you think if they were longer you would be more competitive even with your current focus?
 
Lots of people told me to try endurance racing because its fun. I figured after doing a 100 mile charity road ride I should be okay. Little did I know.....

I did the erie 80 last year (42 miles) took nearly 5.5 hours. It sucked, I never knew so many muscles in my legs could cramp. Wrists hurt, then back hurt, then legs hurt/cramped, then hungry. Stop, drink, eat, feel okay then the cycle starts again. Somehow I got 5th in open men

XC is easier. I like being able to wake up, drive to race, do well and hang a bit, head home and still have late afternoon to do stuff and be functional. Its a challenge but not beat yourself up endurance racing challenge.

Endurance racing is wake up early, finish late, drive home tired AF, be dead the rest of the day and following day too. I may try another one but pretty sure I'm going to be miserable again haha.
 
Or supertuck
This. Pretty amazing things you can do on SS. Tell me how guys consistently finish nues on the podium with an ss running 34/20. Super tuck, pulsing, Saganing the downhills and rollers. Geared guys can do this too but they don’t. I think @jimvreeland forgets that road pros like Bryan Lewis, Matt Acker, olympians like Jeremiah Bishop and Bobby Lea, national xc champions like Brian Schworm etc. Oh, and for the record Bishop beat the best Fondonriders in the world at NYGF.
 
Back
Top Bottom