DirtPedalerB

Watching the olympic coverage on NBC a while ago got me to thining is your local trail harder or easier than the olympic run. I'd say mine is about the same, but no laps just a long loop.

Going by their times I'd say they had more climbing, but the technical parts are about the same or slightly harder where I ride.

so is your normal ride harder than the olympic course?

scrublover

Climbing? No. Technical? Hell yes.

born2bahick

Climbing about the same. I would say out of five local trails, three are more technical and two about the same.

ed 

Our trails are radical! Freakin' Gnar-thrash!!

We have a section of trail that actually has a log across it! Flippin roots and skeeters.

Kansas is effing CORE, yo!

(what B2B said)

Zan

for the local trail here... you've got:

less hills.

a lot more vegetation. (vegetation that you ride over/hit)

a bit more technical stuff.

santiago

Around here there are lot more roots and rocks but it is easy to find trails that are rock-garden fests or stuff similar to what you see on the Olympic course. In terms of elevation, we have some trails that are relatively flat or that offer the same amount of climbing or more. It all depends on what direction out of the city you take.

mtnbiker66

Straight reppin'!

ed 

I've never really ridden on a mountain, hehe. Closest I've come is Arkansas.

I'm planning to remedy that though.

Yotsko

That trail wasn't what I considered an olympic level course. Shouldn't it be test technical skill a little more? That seemed biased towards endurance...

ca7erham

I'll say that the smog is a factor that would make the climbing that much harder (When we were in Bejing, it was a bit like breathing a dog's breath). I loved the slow-mo of the guys going over that section where you could see them locking. Looks fairly tecnical, but, other than one section, most of it looked easier than the "Expert" section (the expert section is like some of the intermediate trails that I've ridden on elsewhere, though) at one of the local riding areas (only with much more climbing).

mtbtrek

the olympic course has a lot more climbs but my local trail is more technical

Steve BT1

Local trails are MUCH more technical!

But, being in west central Florida NO hills, just steep, root, rock filled drops and whoops cut into the sides of old phosphate mine pits.

Steve

Gibby

The Olympic course really didn't look too difficult. Compared to my local area trails, the track looked very smooth. Locally, the trails here are covered with small rocks, gravel, and uneven patches. I was also expecting the trails to be more technical, with some serious obstacles. That's not to say that the Olympic mountain bike event itself wasn't difficult, with riders pushing themselves hard and all that climbing. And I did enjoy watching it, it just didn't look all that bad, at least from the comfort of my sofa.

born2bahick

There was only 40 meters difference in elevation (131 ft) from the lowest point to the highest point. That's not much climbing at all guy's. We got that covered here in Kansas.

mtnbiker66

I 'd say that my local trails are a little bit more tech than the Olympic course.

ZeCanon

Definitely more elevation here, and more technical if you want it to be.

The olympic course was a little lame for sure, but was pretty much on par with most of the european world cup courses. They all favor power over finesse. But that's what you get when you race on trails designed to allow passing about 80% of the time.

ed 

Why is it that this thread has gone unharmed and when I mentioned this crap in the "Leadville 100" thread...I got flamed by a school of roadies?

born2bahick

^^^ that's because the "roadie" took second, the only way to justify that in a roadie's eye is to talk of how hard the course is.
PS. your rabble rowsing aghain!

mcoomer

I tend to agree with you, and since you have a Coug avatar that's really something. I wanted to see a couple of logs, ledges, rocks, step-ups, or something in there to make them deal with some obstacles. I realize that they're riding XC bikes with only enough travel to help keep the tires on the ground but throw in some sort of obstacle for them to deal with. Still, the course was tough enough that you ended up with the riders strung out at the end and not a big pack.

Now, where were the US Men? Down 1 and down 3? Did they forget to put chains on their bikes? Looks like we need Ned to suit up!

Go Dawgs,
Mike

Rutnick

the "fast" trail around here is 11 miles at 1700 feet of climbing. what did the olympic trail have to offer?

This olympic trail is said to actually be much harder than past trails.

junkyard

I didn't watch the Olympic mountain biking, but that doesn't mean I can't compare my indoor, mountain-bike simulator set up with the track used. I would say my indoor set up is much tougher. No doubt.

rb07

This one looked more challenging than what I remember of the Athens course. That said, I didn't get to see all of the race last Olympics because of the sub-par coverage, but...

I would like to ride this Olympic course, though. Looked like fun even though it may not be technically challenging. That is, if the air quality was better

spsofgr

my is almost te same

Rutnick

I've ridden the Athens course. Conyers today is harder than the 96 version.

Rutnick

but what is your point? The olympic course was what? 4.4km done 8 times so that's about 21 miles. The winning time was just sub 2hour. The pros at the 11 mile course that I listed earlier do it in around 48 minutes so that's 22 miles in about 96 minutes.

While the course might not look all that challenging, the constant up and down of the course for 4.4k with 8 loops leaves little room to really build speed in the flats which means you are constantly up and down with no rest.

Sometimes...you have to look at a course hard. We might ride it and think...well that wasn't tough. Try to ride it fast...multiply by 8, add passing and the heat of a 3pm start time.

Some course that I ride are a freaking breeze when I ride them. They become more challenging when you try to make places to go faster.

As technical, no....hard...probably. slower...yes.