Originally Posted by
aaronmcd
Like I mentioned I'm guessing a skilled rider would be fine on these little jumps and stairs without suspension, but I have 50,000 miles on a road bike and 200 on a gravel bike lol. Probably a few hundred trail miles on the Cervelo, but the really rocky stuff is no fun on 23s.
There are few truly exceptional bike handlers that did not spend time in other disciplines. In my opinion, the two best bike handlers in the pro peloton are Peter Sagan and Julian Alaphillipe. Both came from cyclocross. Even in local cyclocross races, you can usually tell who comes from mountain biking and who comes from road.
I consider myself a good bike handler, and I have more miles on the road than anywhere else, but that is not where I got my skills. They came from years riding BMX and freestyle bikes in my youth, riding MTB and ten seasons of cyclocross, and even off-road unicycle. I was riding gravel before it was cool.
I’m sure that you are a great wheel on the road, but the more time that you spend on loose surfaces, you more you will realize that your road riding skills are only “base miles” and the cyclocross, MTB and trials experience are the “intervals” of bike handling.