Mountain biking vs road cycling

If you want to ride in the countryside and explore away from the hustle and bustle, mountain biking is for you. Mountain biking is basically riding your bike off road, often over rough terrain. Mountain biking takes on many forms (cross country, trail riding, Enduro, downhill and freeride). However, most people tend to go trail and cross country riding. On a Neilson mountain biking holiday the riding takes place in beautiful scenery, on off road trails such as singletrack, back country roads and fire roads.

The bikes are specially designed to be able to ride over rough terrain, they have suspension to absorb the lumps and bumps of the trails. The tyres have a deep tread to aid with grip and they tend to have lower ratio gears to help with the steep hill climbs. 

There’s been a bit of a boom in road cycling in recent years and its popularity shows no sign of slowing down. Road cycling as the name suggests is riding a bike predominately on the road. It offers something for everyone, from endurance rides, climbs and sprints to more leisurely adventures on the open road.  

The bikes are built for speed, generally lightweight, with drop handlebars (to promote a more aerodynamic riding position) and multiple gears. The tyres are narrow and run at a high pressure, which reduces rolling resistance, enabling you to clock up the miles and tackle the hills with relative ease. 

To the uninitiated, you may wonder why cyclists needs specific kit. Won’t any old gym gear (shorts, t-shirt and trainers) do? Never mind that it seems road cyclists and mountain bikers have differing needs too!

Road cycling as we know is all about speed and aerodynamics. Clothing is cut specifically to reduce wind resistance, hence lots of tight-fitting lycra. The tops roadies wear (jerseys), tend to be cut with longer backs to compensate for the bent over riding position. If you’re spending a long time on the road, padded shorts come into their own. As road cycling is all about speed being able to generate power from the pedal is key, the stiff soles and cleats on road cycling shoes are designed to assist with this.

You won’t find much lycra on the mountain bike trails. Riders tend to move about quite a bit as they negotiate the trails, so the kit you wear will have a loose, baggy fit. Real keen riders might wear impact protection and the loose layers allow for this. While technical, wicking fabrics are invaluable to keep sweat away from the skin.

It’s hard to give a definitive answer to the question of fitness. Both mountain biking and road cycling bring benefits, and neither is perfect for all round fitness. However, they work well together, mountain biker’s cardiovascular fitness will benefit from some time on the road and road biker’s strength and technique will be rewarded from time hitting the trails.

The stop and start nature of mountain biking gives an interval style workout, steep climbs are great for building strength and power. And the nature of the riding means that you are always on the go with very little freewheeling. This constant effort and engagement means that you’ll be burning calories and that means fat too. It’s more of a total body workout than road cycling, as you use the upper body to ride out the uneven terrain and to help power you up steeper climbs. The constant shifting around to maintain balance will give the core muscles a great workout too. Road bikers tend to have greater cardiovascular fitness (boosting aerobic fitness and heart health) due to the constant riding. You’ll also be building strength in all the main muscle groups in the legs.

Where is your comfort zone? Are you a lycra-clad road machine happy clocking up the miles or do you prefer to hit woodland trails and technical singletrack on your mountain bike?  It’s more than possible to do a bit of both and as we’ve already covered there are benefits to a bit of cross-training (see ‘Which is better for fitness?’).

If you’re undecided you can try both on a Neilson Beachclub holiday. All beachclubs feature mountain biking as an inclusive activity with expert guiding thrown in for good measure. At selected beachclubs in Spain, Greece and Sardinia, you can also try road biking. Everyday there will be a choice of rides for both mountain and road bikes, these rides are aimed at all abilities, so you just need to sign up for the ride that you’re comfortable with. By the end of the week you’ll probably have decided which camp (or saddle) you sit in.