Disciplines

Cross-country, trail, enduro, downhill and the other ways to ride.

• Freeride

  Riding for the line rather than the clock: big drops, jumps and steep natural terrain, chosen and ridden with style. Judged on creativity and flow when it is raced at all.

• Dirt jump (DJ)

  Riding a line of hand-built dirt jumps on a small, stiff hardtail — for height, flow and tricks. Close to BMX in spirit, and where many riders learn to fly.

• Downhill (DH)

  Racing one steep, rough track from top to bottom, against the clock, on bikes with around 200 mm of travel. A World Cup run lasts three to four minutes and is decided by fractions of a second.

• Gravel

  Long rides on unpaved roads and easy trails on drop-bar bikes with wide tyres. Somewhere between road cycling and mountain biking — and the reason many riders discover dirt.

• Trail riding

  The most common way to ride a mountain bike: loops that climb under your own power and descend the good stuff, on one bike that does a bit of everything.

• Cross-country (XC)

  Mountain biking as an endurance sport: as much up as down, on light and efficient bikes, where fitness wins races. The only mountain-bike discipline at the Olympic Games.

• Enduro

  Racing the descents and riding the climbs: timed downhill stages linked by untimed transfers you pedal up yourself. Also the name of the long-travel bikes built for it.