Mountain Bikers are tougher

In the March issue of MTA they did a test between a road biker and a mountain biker.  They pitted Burry Stander against Andy Schleck.  They each did a 7.4 mile pavement climb and a 5.5 mile single-track climb and then combined the times.  Burry road time was less than a minute behind Andy's at 36:29.8 and then beat Andy by almost 10 minutes on the dirt climb with a time of 36.39.  On paper at least it looks like mountain bikers are better riders than roadies, but who knows.  Todd Tye who does both feels that a mile on the mountain bike equals three+ on the road (but he also has a heart rate in the 40's).  I can hear the roadies now "how does this thing shift, why are the tires so wide with bumps, and what are those siny discs on the wheels for?"