Throwback Thursday: 5 Riders Who Have Crossed Between Road & Mountain Bike Racing
Tom Pidcock's assault on the World Cup races has us talking about which racers have successfully competed in multiple cycling disciplines.
Tom Pidcock is the talk of the town these days, and for good reason: The young road racer has taken the cross country races by storm, putting down incredible race results so far this season.
But Pidcock is far from the only crossover rider, and there are many racers who defy easy categorization. Here are some others who have crossed from road racing to mountain biking or vice versa, with varying degrees of success.
Peter Sagan
Peter Sagan has roots in mountain biking - he was junior cross country world champion in 2008, after all - but when he lined up for the Rio 2016 Olympics, he hadn't raced any high-level dirt races in seven years. The reigning road world champion was awarded a wildcard spot to represent Slovakia, and although he started from the very back of the pack, he had a real shot at the podium. Unfortunately for him, the race was a roller coaster. He battled his way up into the five-rider lead group, then lost his position at the end of the first lap when he punctured. His fate was sealed when he punctured again on the fifth lap and was eventually pulled from the race, settling for an official 35th of 44 finishers. He has said he does not intend to try to race cross country in the 2021 Olympics.
Whether you believe flat tires happen because of bad luck or faulty technique, as some prominent pro riders said at the time, Sagan's Olympic mountain biking endeavor was an intriguing glimpse at something that almost was.
Marianne Vos
Marianne Vos had several junior mountain bike national championship titles to her name by the time she went pro on the road. In 2013, 2014, and 2015, she gave elite mountain bike racing some serious effort, even considering trying to race cross country in the 2016 Olympics, but she struggled with the technicality of some of the courses. Still, her mountain bike campaign was relatively successful: she beat out some of the top mountain bike racers to collect both short track and cross country wins at Sea Otter, as well as riding two impressive World Cup races, finishing 11th and 23rd in Albstadt and Leogang, respectively. Still, despite her success and obvious ability, she decided that mountain bike racing is not for her, partly because she doesn't have the technical ability that she feels she needs, and partly because she enjoys the tactics and team dynamics in road racing.
Mathieu van der Poel
Cyclocross and road star Mathieu van der Poel has shown that he can be dominant across several disciplines at once, and he is increasingly focusing on mountain biking. After dabbling in cross country racing in previous years, van der Poel turned the jets on in 2017 and earned a second place behind Nino Schurter in Albstadt. He solidified his position on the podium in 2018, then started taking consistent wins in 2019. After a hiatus in 2020, he's back for 2021, with his sights set on the Olympics.
Cadel Evans
Cadel Evans started his international racing career on a mountain bike before shifting to road racing and becoming one of Australia's most notable bike racers of all time. Evans won a series of World Cup races and stood on two U23 world championship podiums. In the early 2000s, he officially switched to road racing and signed with a pro team, eventually winning the Tour de France in 2011 and not returning to mountain bike competition until 2017, when he took on the Cape Epic stage race with former teammate George Hincapie.
And for a true throwback film, here's Chainsmoke, a 1996 film that features several of the mountain biking legends alongside the future road champion.
Pauline Ferrand-Prevot
Given her long list of mountain biking achievements, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot is a name we all know well, but her impressive performances on the dirt sometimes overshadow the fact that she excels not only on the trails but on the road as well. At age 23, she became the first person ever to simultaneously hold the road, cyclocross, and cross country mountain bike world championship titles. She also placed 9th in the London 2012 Olympic road race at age 20 as the youngest competitor in the women's field. This season, she's focusing on mountain biking in preparation for the Olympics, but her dominance over the last decade has shown that she could likely return to the top of the road racing scene if she chose to.
Pauline Ferrand-Prevot won the Albstadt World Cup short track race. She seems prepared for an excellent season.
This list is obviously not exhaustive, and there are plenty of notable multi-discipline riders out there, particularly cyclocross crossover racers (Simon Andreassen and Jolanda Neff come to mind). Which other crossover riders should we be talking about?
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Martínez is a good example of the kind of rider who could be successful in the old days, but probably wouldn't be a viable candidate to win modern races.
In the end histoy was written with the aussy getting a TDF, and the frenchie never really making it to success on the 28 wheels.
He was a little badass
The points I'm trying to make:
1. This article implies the recent, high-profile riders who have crossed over from road to dirt may not have as strong technical skills as riders who compete mostly on dirt. I disagree. In particular, Evans, Pidcock, Sagan, and van der Poel are among the best bike-handlers among the men's WC XC field, despite having achieved greatest notoriety on the road.
2. Sub-average technical skills were less of a detriment in the old days than now. Many courses from decades past were less technical than modern courses, while most modern courses are technical enough that riders of sub-average skill will lose a problematic amount of time every lap. A high degree of technical skill has always been an advantage, but now it's absolutely required on most courses for a rider to win.
Evans, Sagan, van der Poel, and Pidcock - to name a few - have all been featured in mountain biking videos looking as skilled and stylish as "true" mountain bikers ... because they are true mountain bikers, they just got paid more when riding pavement.
That’s less common these days just because most promising young riders cross disciplines-not many road, MTB, or any other one-discipline riders out there to “cross over” later.
I was no pro, but I raced road, track and XC when I was younger.
There certainly was a time when almost any mid-pack road pro could opt to be near the top of the mountain bike scene. Courses were less technical and there would always be some squid holding up a line of traffic on the descents, so it was all about the climbs. Those days are long past.
Fabio Wibmer may have done it in To The Limit, but Wibmer had a foot out and wasn't on 1" wide tires, essentially naked, in the middle of a 200+ km race! We could argue which was more impressive, but we would still be comparing Sagan to Wibmer, which suggests Sagan isn't just some semi-skilled rider who's having a go at mountain biking.
There are plenty of Sagan videos showing his skills too. From no handed wheelies to jumping on to a car to hopping up stairs. He’s a wizard.
Or how about Julie Furtado? She was outstanding across disciplines.
Actually, there’s a long list of successful (and less successful) crossover racers. If you’re fit enough to do well in DH, you’ll be a decent XC or Enduro rider. If you’re a solid XC enduro racer, you’ll likely do well on the road or racing cross. The whole “us vs them” mentality in cycling is perpetuated by wankers who aren’t particularly good in ANY discipline of cycling to soothe their sorry little egos.
The same year Ratboy got his silver at the Worlds, Egan got the silver at Junior XC Worlds. Went on to win the TDF in 2019.
Me too. Google didn't.
Then there is also, Jerome Chiotti, Micheal Rasmussen, Miguel Martinez, Ryder Hesjedal, Roland Green, Lance Armstrong etc that we might want to forget as they don't represent a great period of the sport!
The article is missing names but possibly rightly so.
stevetilford.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/armstrong99mtn2.jpg
My father and I went and watched that race.
Great times.
Thank goodness the interesting content in the comments saved it
I know she had some TT results and did smaller road races in years prior, but those might as well be local 10s from a tactical standpoint. Then in 2018, Denmark used her climbing legs to help as a domestique at a climb-heavy Worlds (which she did very well) after which Boels Dolmans dropped her straight into the Women's World Tour Spring Classics, where she had top fives in three of the hardest damned races, both physically and tactically, in the world. (2nd at Strade, 3rd at Fleche and 4th at Amstel, which is surely the hardest race for peloton newbies)
Hesjedal and Green got similar chances to go straight to the front with USPS, but didn't make that type of impact. Cadel obviously reached the pinnacle of road cycling, but took a long road there (awesome, but long). To me, the only thing close (albeit the opposite direction) would have been Sagan getting a top five in Rio, but the air in his tires decided to go elsewhere.
So, did anyone make the immediate impact at the top that Langvad made?
floydsofleadville.com
Does crossing over from cyclocross count? Thomas Frischknecht...
Also....Adrian Timmis. Superb road and Cross rider who dominated xc when he switched.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NMyaXG17Wg