Pinkbike Poll: What's Your Favorite Type of Mountain Bike Racing?
It's no secret that it's a challenging time for elite level mountain bike racing – the number of World Cup races has been reduced for 2024 and teams are slashing budgets, in many cases leaving talented riders looking for new sponsors. In addition, for the fans at home it's becoming more difficult and more expensive to tune in to spectate.
Watching the state of mountain bike racing (and the industry in general) is like watching someone pump up a tire without paying any attention to the pressure gauge. Things seem like they're going well until suddenly, "KA-BLAM," the tire bursts off the bead, leaving unlucky bystanders partially deaf and covered in sealant. This isn't the first time the mountain bike world has experienced a sudden deflation – I'm old enough to remember what happened in the late '90 / early 2000s, when the mountain bike market collapsed, causing race teams to re-evaluate whether or not they could really justify paying for a semi-truck trailer at every race, or even attend races at all.
Racing Isn't Going Away
As easy as it is to bemoan the supposed 'death of enduro,' or whatever discipline seems like it's on the chopping block, racing isn't going anywhere. Yes, at the highest level things aren't looking that great for the near future, and I'm sure it'll take a few years before stability returns, but this could be a good time to shift the focus towards more grassroots events, the ones that tend to be the most entertaining and exciting anyways.
Enduro racing can be a ton fun to experience, but it's a tricky discipline to spectate.
Sometimes Participating is More Fun Than Spectating
For enduro in particular, it's a discipline that seems to be more fun to experience from in-between the tape rather than watching from the sidelines. I know I'd much rather be in the fray, trying to make it through a weekend of racing tricky stages versus watching an extra-dry highlights video that seems specifically designed to cure insomnia. That seems to be the biggest hurdle for enduro – it's extremely difficult to put together coverage that's engaging enough to attract more than diehard aficionados.
Downhill, on the other hand, seems tailor-made for prime time, as long as silly things like semi-finals runs aren't stuck into the mix. It's a discipline that's long been poised to enter the mainstream as a spectator sport, but for whatever reason it never quite gets over that final hurdle that would have non-endemic sponsors clamoring to get their name on racers' jerseys and bikes.
When it comes to actually participating in a downhill race, that pool of potential riders is much smaller than the one for an enduro or XC race – DH equipment is more specialized, as is the terrain required to create a suitable track.
XC courses have gotten more challenging, and the racing has become more exciting.
At the moment, cross-county racing sits in the sweet spot of being accessible to the largest number of riders while also being entertaining to watch. Courses have grown more technical and bikes have become more capable, which makes for a much better experience for fans and riders alike. Plus, this year is an Olympic year, which means that there's the opportunity for millions of people to watch the sport for the first time.
Grassroots Racing Is Where It's At
While I have plenty of opinions, I don't have any quick and easy solution to solving the struggles at the elite level of the sport. (Hint: e-enduro racing is not the answer, and for the record, I don't think professional eMTB racing should exist at all, but that's probably worth a separate article).
That said, I'd highly recommend checking out a local race or two this season. It's great way to shake things up, and even if you don't feel like racing it's still worth showing up to do some good old-fashioned heckling. If there isn't any organized racing in your area, well, it doesn't take much to get something going – grab a crew of friends and a couple of stopwatches and you have the ingredients for fun, no pay-per-view subscription required.
What's Your Favorite MTB Discipline to Watch?
What Type of MTB Racing Do You Most Want to Participate In?
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Member since Feb 1, 2009
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added comment.
E-bike racing sucks because……..
I always wonder why people hate e-bikes as their sales do support companies that make bikes. I just can’t see how e-bikes or e-bike racing hurts the industry or any type of bike race.
But for racing? Bicycles have been human powered for 100+ years of racing. Man vs nature, similar to running. We can’t know if how much the motor and or battery contributed to a result. It’s like if F1 came to electric motor bicycle racing. I get that some people love F1 and the technological side, but I don’t want that for competitive bike racing.
OMG. Somebody needs to make that happen
Some of the times when I got the most tired after riding a bike were on the days when I rode an ebike.
Because it just makes you try stuff you otherwise wouldn't, and basically you get so into riding, that it's really hard to stop ... You're always like: I'm on an ebike, I'll climb one more time to ride downhill again. And again. And again...
It's fun. You should try it sometime, especially if you want to have an informed opinion.
Ok, can we at least agree that it can vary from one person to another? Not everybody is going to get lazy? Did you get lazy or not, can't really tell from the whole story you wrote...
If you did, don't you think it would be more, idk, objective to say that it made you lazier, but that doesn't have to be the same story for everybody???
They're slower than normal bikes in xc marathon races.
They blast past you up the first hills but later in the day you pass them at like the half way mark trying to push their shitty heavy bikes up some climb because the battery is dead. And the rider is totally gassed having to push and pedal that thing around.
Ride what you like, but e-bikes racing is as sensible as painting on toilet paper.
But yeah not into watching or racing e bikes
Give your "Bahumbug" attitude a rest, scrooge.
Dual Slalom doesn't even get close to the excitement a 4X race can generate.
I have a dream team ready: Ropelato, Masters brothers, Bulldog, and Martin Soderstrom.
They didn't race 4X full time, but when they did it was the most exciting ever!
Dual Slalom was very successful as both a NORBA and World Cup discipline, most of the top racers would compete and there was plenty of interest and fans watching. Somebody convinced the UCI 4x would be better for spectating so they went that route. Most of the top racers stopped racing it because it's risky, and it died and the UCI dropped it. There is hardly any interest in it anymore, be realistic. 4x is exciting but if the top pros aren't there, it's irrelevant. The big names will never race 4x, it's essentially BMX racing. But the Sea Otter dual slalom still attracts a lot of pro DH racers because it's fun for them to race it.
As long as the UCI doesn't lay claim to it, id be all about it.
Check out the Revy50, in Revelstoke BC. www.racerevelstoke.com/revy-50
There used to be one in Bragg Creek Alberta (west of Calgary), the Bow80. Epic when the weather was good, absolute frozen hell if not.
@dpars63 take a look at some of the XC races and series in the PNW. You might find what you're looking for. A lot of the climbing is still double track, but that makes passing possible. Still a good amount of really fun singletrack.
DS is amazing, but DH is still my #1.
But I think they compliment each other well. They could run DS Friday night to get the party started and run DH on Sunday.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iYL-BOsZQU
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFh2cnv9REk
www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6BMtNS_0t0
I don’t even hate e-bikes, but they are for training and / or exploration. Not racing.
Interestingly enough, a lot of pros race them specifically for training purposes.
Others do race them because that’s what they enjoy.
The following year, they started a DH fatbike race called the Frosted Fatty. The year after that, they added an additional dual slalom event where you got to race against skiers and snowboarders!
I have to say, those races are some of the most fun I've had on any type of bike, I miss it. Fat bikes are underrated.
Here's an old video of the racing: www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=rjL5DTehSY4
Doesn’t stop me from riding fast, but race fast is a whole different beast.
For MTB, I prefer racing XCO. I think enduro would be great if races did more stages and less lifts, so you actually had to have the "endurance* in enduro, but every race I have done has either had a lift, or very few stages. So I end up sitting around waiting in a long start line. At least if I sign up for an XCM event I know I'm racing for HOURS, not sitting around. I rode the local DH course the other day (Southridge in SoCal) and then course was great, but the idea of waiting in line for who knows how long for a 2 minute run seemed silly (the fact that i would lose was not a factor).
She and I are related.....by tatoo.
On the bum, though?
But no wonder 4x died . More expensive to build and maintain, without any significant income advantage from a race promoters stand point . One of those things that’s just great, but sadly doesn’t make a ton of business sense
Somewhat less true for longer time-trials races like stage road races, where they can bounce around to different riders (show starts, check in on a couple people and comment on where they are doing well).
Watching DH in person is a different story. Even if you hang out at the finish and watch the big screens, the atmosphere is electric. I didn't want to do that for XCO so I walked the whole course and found a spot that was interesting and waited until the end before I went to the finish area. DH better in person.
Also in a dream world where I could complete in an elite event, I had to go Hardline.
I understand race organizations "give back to the trails" both monetarily as well as "sponsored dig days" but f*ck that, in some cases the deep pitted loam turns into a highway with brake bumps.
That's just where I'm at currently, but maybe it's cause I'm old and grumpy now and all the new kids are faster then me?
XCC - short track cross-country (race times of 30 minutes or less, 6-8 laps)
But in the Greater Van I don't see short 30min races, and what I do see is more like the following:
XCO - cross-country (race times under 2 hours, 5-7 laps)
Yes,100 last Sept. hardest one ever.
\m/