Used to be solely Mountain bikes but if you saw the hills just 6 miles from where I live- there is no real choice
Downs view..JPG Downsview..JPG
This is on the South Downs Way which is a ridge that runs for 100 miles. No Climb is higher than 850ft but the numerous decsents down to Sea Level means that if you ride the Way there is 10,000ft of climbing to do. I have attempted the SDW ride in one day 11 times and only failed twice. Last time was in 2006- aged 59- and I failed but I think the weather had a hand in that failure.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=197532
But after that ride- I realised that I could not keep punishing myself to that extent. 12 hours of hard physical effort was getting through to me. So I got a road bike. Just a Base OCR3 but it got me into road riding. Took a while to Adjust but at the end of 2007 I went into my LBS and they offered me a deal on a Mountain bike. I said that if I were to get a new bike- it was going to be a road bike to replace the OCR. The offer they made on the TCR-C was too good so I now class myself as a roadie. But a roadie that still likes to get the old Bianchi Griszzly out for some enjoyable fun riding.