Q. Who’s fitter–mountain bikers or road riders?

A. That’s like asking if Superman or Godzilla is stronger. Who was cooler, Jimmy Super-Fly Snuka or Andre the Giant? Who the hell knows?

I ambushed Chris Carmichael (Lance Armstrong’s personal coach) with this question. He just looked at me and laughed. “No WAY am I answering that one!” was his first reply. Then he gave me a diplomatic response: “They’re equally fit…just in different ways.”

It’s a wuss-butt answer, but it’s probably true. The two sports require different types of fitness for success. Mountain biking demands a higher power-to-weight ratio because it’s a more anaerobic sport. You can get away with less anaerobic capacity on the road, but you need more endurance. Road riders also tend to use fuel more efficiently than mountain bikers, which lets them sustain many days of long miles. Says Carmichael: “Road riding is more of a slow drain, while mountain biking sucks it out of you right away.”

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