This Guy HATES Mountain Biking, Can We Change His Mind?

Welcome back, you beautiful people. Why in this day and age do people still hate mountain biking? I think it's the best sport to enjoy the outdoors with a number of different disciplines, from going as fast as possible downhill, to styling it over big jumps, and to bust your lungs out at a bit of XC, but this guy still hates mountain biking. This is Olly Bridgewood from GCN, everyone. You all right? Cold head? Yeah. Bit muddy for you? Brilliant. We're going to change his mind for good. Oh! No brakes. That's it. The thing is, you don't actually hate mountain biking, do you? No. I mean, all my parents say that I'm just a road cyclist at the moment, and I'm just confused, and it's a phase, and I'll grow out of it. Yes. Today, you are going to grow up, and you're going to start thinking of what genre of biking you like to do within mountain biking. That's where you are confused. Are you a downhiller? Are you a cross-country? I wish we're going to find out in a minute, but who is Olly Bridgewood? Or should I say, who is Dr. Olly Bridgewood? This is Dr. Olly Bridgewood from GCN Tech, height, 185 centimeters, loves skin suits and talking watts, hates mud, being cold, and wet. Well, it's your lucky day today. He has a PhD in organic chemistry, making him a doctor and an author of page turners including Atropos and what? Atropos, an anti-o-selective synthesis of substituted bi-aryl azepines, and the synthesis of substituted bi-aryl oxypenes as potential vascular disrupting agents. No doubt you'll recall those from the bestsellers list, right? Oh, yes. Anyway. Oh, and loves time trials and hill climbs. Yes. Anyway. Today is your lucky day. We're going to find out what genre of mountain biker you are. Kicking off with jumping, because I think you love jumping. Everyone loves jumping. I absolutely buzz off jumping. He's over there. Follow me. First genre on the cards is jumping. Now, I love jumping, and I think it's something that you would love too. No? No. All I can see here is mud, rain, and just hazards, potential broken bones everywhere. Well, let's touch wood that's not going to happen, but today we're going to help you, right? Little tabletop here. Yes, touch wood. Little tabletop here. One bike length. Doesn't look little. You got it. You nail this, you nail the whole thing. You'll be screaming with joy or screaming with pain if you hit the floor, which you're not going to do today. There's a sign up there that says, is this trail right for you? Is it? It says it's advanced and hard. It's a red trail. And it's a red. Yes. I don't feel like I'm- Is there like a green? No, it's autumn, so everything is orange and red. Go on. You've got it. I'll tow you in. It's all about having good times and laps with your mates. It's mountain biking. It says here, off-road cycling carries inherent risks. Please consider your skills, abilities, and fitness carefully. Exactly. You ready, Ollie? You ready? Oh, yes. Drop it in. Yes. Yes, Ollie. That's it. He's nailing it. He's getting no air whatsoever using them as rollers. Something tells me he's not a jumper. Well, let's work on it a little bit. He's kind of come back up. We want to try and get him to clear up and just get- Not clear, but get a bit of air so he can jump. Something tells me he's not a jumper. Do you reckon we can get you to clear one or get some air? When you're coming into the transition of the lip, you want to preload your suspension. Push like you were to hop over a pothole on the road. You use your cleats to get yourself up. It's cheating using your cleats, but that's how you would do it on the road because you just clipped in. You don't need to learn this technique that well because it's easy to jump that. There, you want to compress in the bowl, the basin, before the lip. Compress and drive it up. You're going up, pushing up. You're driving it up. Then when you're driving, you stand up a little bit like that. Don't pull on the bars. You've got it. That's it. Push down now. Okay. Yes. No. I'll do it again. I was on the brakes. Why did you brake? You got this much. Hang on. This much air. No brakes. Oh. No, you need more. Oh. Yes. Super stoked. Look at that. Thanks, man. How addictive is that? Yes. I reckon a couple more goes at that. Red Bull Rampage. Yes. All right. Talk about Rampage. Should we hit these drops then? All right. Go on. All right. You ready? My road to Rampage starts here. Your off-road to Rampage. Not your road. On-road. I think you should go first. Okay. Remember, smooth arc off it. Gnarly, bro. Yes, dude. No brakes. That's it. We've got Dr. Bridgewood about to drop in for his second round of Rampage. Put your hands together. Three, two, one. Drop in. Oh, he clears the first. Yes. The crowd goes wild. This next one, right, I think is way up your street. Yes. Cross-country. I reckon you're going to absolutely thrive at this because you've got the hours built into those legs. You've got the mileage built into those legs. You're all about spinning. Cross-country is all about spinning, but there's one thing you need to take into account, right, with cross-country is off-road skill. But I think you're going to love it. Sounded good up until that point. But I think you're going to love it. Right. Okay. Cool. Yes. I'll give it a go. One thing we need to address. We're going for a little pedal, but you're on my full-blown Orbea Rallon Enduro Race Spec machine. Yes. It's got a lot of travel, which is not built for cross-country, but it's good for pedaling. Yes. Did you want to lead the way or do you want me to lead the way? You lead. I think it's best if you lead. We're going this way. Okay. Come on. It's a Blue Trails. Lovely. Cross-country. Yes. Now, it is one of your things, I reckon. You love that, don't you? I enjoyed that. Yes. I'd like to have more of a go at that. Yes. I think that could be my thing with fat tires. Just getting out there on Blue Trails, the words XC comes across to people a bit like cross-country racing. You think you only go out there and go racing all the time. No. Cross-country is literally going for a pedal across country. Yes. I like it when it's flowy. Blue Trails. Is that how you do it? Super flowy, meandering, single track. You're getting your effort in, fire roads, all that rad jazz. I like going for a pedal. It's good. Yes. Now, we're going to ask the ante. Oh. We're at the top, so we have to go down. Come on. I've got the perfect track. Yes. Do you do this much in road? No. You don't do that much. You should bring it to road. It's incredible. It's super cool. Anyway, downhill, it has every aspect of adrenaline. You've got wet roots, drops, berms, ruts, slob, more wet roots, rocks, steep gullies, big drop-offs, jumps. You name it, you can get your adrenaline from downhill. It's full gas. That's it. We're going by the looks of that over there. I think you might struggle a little bit downhill. You might not like downhill. Okay. Are you ready? No. I will go first, and I'll shout out some hazards, and you just roll them or jump them. You ready? Dropping it. Quite cold now. This is horrendous. What do you think of that? It's just really slippy. It's downhill, dude. It's really slippy. Narrow. This is where you don't jam on brakes, especially your front. I can't guarantee that, I'm afraid. You've got two options here. You've got the drop, which you can roll, but you don't want to sump out. The way that you would come in with a bit of intimidation, you probably slowed down too much, get your front chain ring caught on that and send you over the bar. I would take the left lane and then slowly go down there, but there are some roots crossing the trail, so that is a big slippery hazard. We can guide you down here, for sure. That's it. Go left now. That's it. I'm shitting myself. Are you scared? Yes. Here's a downhill for you. Get off. Keep going. A bit wider here. A bit wider. I'm pretty excited. Well done. If that was surgery, you would have nailed it. That's a doctor thing, I think. More ruts. Especially this one down here, where your front wheel does drift, but you've got to know it's drifting, but it will grab grip. And a drop to exit through there. This section is really fast, fun, flowy, but scary at the same time. Especially when wet. Here he comes. That's it, Ollie. Keep it. That's it. A little bit quicker. Lay off the brake a little bit, because you're snapping at the brakes there, which is sending your body weight over the front loads. You don't want that. If you are going to, lean back more, but you don't really want to lean back too much right at the beginning of the trail, because then you've fully extended yourself to a point where, when you need to lean back, you're at the point of too much lean. Look ahead. That's it. What do you think of the downhill? Well, it was a bit tricky, wasn't it? I found that really hard. With it being so wet and stuff, I found it really hard. And then the other thing is, years of riding on the road has just automatically conditioned my brain that any time the tyre starts to go, that's very bad, because when it's on the road, it's out. So I need to learn that confidence that you have, that it starts to go, you drift a bit, and then it grips. And when it's like I'm sliding on a root or a slippy bit of mud, I just crap my pants. So what do you think of downhill? I think for you, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. But I think to enjoy it more, I need to get more confidence and more skill on some easier stuff than that. That was a flak. That was a hard one. The best thing about Mound Bike is finishing off a ride with your mates. Cheers. A nice cold beer. On a warm, sunny day. I could get used to this. It's good, isn't it? Yeah, the pie is good as well. What is the best thing about today? What is the best genre you like? Cross-country. I enjoy that. Yeah, we love that. I'd like to have another go. Which one did you dislike the most? I didn't really dislike any of it. I just found the downhill really hard. I think I'd want to do it again, just need a bit more skill. A bit more practice. It comes with practice, doesn't it? Confidence comes with practice and all that rad jazz. It's all about cross-country. We should get you racing cross-country. What? Go ride cross-country. Race cross-country? Let us know in the comments down below if you want to see this chap back on GMBN. Mate, what did you do today, by the way? How many what's? What? I don't know what that is. We'll see you around. See you.