Originally Posted by salsa
most people in wv train on a road bike but don't race them. road racers suck
because they are faster than you? or are you just frightened of the unknown? I'm confident that as a roadie, I could whoop you pretty bad...
I race both disciplines, and feel that each allows you to be faster in the other. Roadies with no mtb experience can be downright scary when things get sketchy (they freak out) and mountain bikers that don't ride or race on the road usually have such a fitness disadvantage that I don't even have to worry about them. You need the fitness and the technical skills to be a more rounded, complete mountain bike racer.
Road racing is a lot of fun, but it's a different kind of fun. It's tactics, attacking, using you head. There is no using your head in mountain bike racing. You just go as fast as you can for 2 hours. Yeah you can 'attack' the one or two guys around you but it's not the same as attacking a bunch of 60 or 70 riders and trying to hold them off. And in road racing, there is no hiding your lack of fitness behind good technical skills.
So basically my point is, try both! If you are bothered by the roadies beating you up climbs, become one. Try it out. Just think how much faster you would be if you could climb like a roadie and descend like a mountain biker.