Mountain Biking is of course my first love, it's in my DNA. Its everything I love about cycling. I've been racing off-road for 20 years, seen it all and know the scene inside out. My limited experience of road racing is two closed circuit races at a 4th cat level. The second race was yesterday and having finished there was no rush of excitement and verbal diarrhea that comes after an off-road event. Sitting here now I am not motivated in any way to try it again. Why?
First the positive. It certainly makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck the first time you ride at high speed in a large peleton. It's like nothing else in cycling, just the noise of 50 bikes is something else.
After a few minutes you get used to riding elbow to elbow, sucked along by those in front. The excitement level drops. You then spend the next 8 laps desperately trying to hold your line and not to collide with those around you. You want to stay tucked into the group although you seem magnetically drawn to the back.
Of course at some point you decide to break the boredom by visiting the front of the pack. You grab a wheel and work your way forward. Its great, you're going nearly 30mph and feeling strong - maybe you could make a break? Then the rider ahead pulls over and the wind hits you like you've ridden into a brick wall. You are at the head to a huge arrow of riders and your legs are burning with the effort. After what seems like eternity, somebody comes through and you begin to freefall like a stone back through the pack. The effort has pushed you to your physical limit and now your legs are churning, lungs heaving as the last rider slips past. You have to get out of the saddle and sprint to try and hang onto the same group which a moment ago you were leading.
After a couple more laps you recover and settle back into the group. The pace dips and then picks up again, the peloton concertinas and then stretches out. All you and majority of the others want to do is stay safely in the pack. A few at the front try fruitlessly to escape, the best getting maybe 20 meters down the road before they too fade and drop back.
90% of the race is about survival and staying upright. Final lap - the bell rings signalling the start of the real race. The pace increases dramatically as everyone jostles for a position near the front. People take risks as they try to move forward and things get a little scary. Sweeping into the last corner those who have managed to get into the lead fight out the sprint, the rest coast across the line, finishing position now totally irrelevant. You could have spent the entire race rolling along merrily in the middle of the group without putting in any effort at all.
In a mountain bike race you have to push hard for the entire distance. You might be 50th, but you'll fight tooth and nail with the rider ahead for 49th. There is always somebody to race, and the course itself to challenge yourself against. Road racing isn't like that. You wait the entire race, and if you choose the wrong wheel to follow at the critical moment you've boxed out and have to wait for next week.
Perhaps that is what motivates people - the thought that perhaps it'll work out next time and they will be in the right place at the right time. It requires fitness undoubtedly, skill to position and gauge your effort but definitely luck. Personally I think I'll stick to the knobbly tyres.
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