Wouldn’t you rather ride the Punisher or the Leg Burner?

The differences between mountain bikers and road cyclists are many.

For a start, the nouns “biker” and “cyclist” tend to fit more with mountain and road respectively. After all, it’s not often, if at all, you hear of “mountain cyclists”.

However, there are other contrasts between these two sides of the bike wheel.

Although there is an increasing crossover between those who will ride both on and off road, there is still a distinct culture of any move being seen as going over to the Dark Side.

Of course, it is nonsense and in the end we are all cyclists riding our bikes and having fun.

But there is one aspect between the two groups that is readily obvious as a difference – and that’s the naming of Strava segments.

For the uninitiated, this is a defined section of a route designated by a user of Strava, a GPS-based app that logs rider information such as duration and length of ride.

Each segment will record the duration of the route and then place their time in a league table from fastest to slowest. With that, riders can have the speed of their ride posted online for time immemorial.

It is easy to get obsessed with these segments and study your form (or lack of it) and as you do so, the discrepancy between on and off-roaders becomes apparent.

For mountain bikers the naming of each segment is usually a highly creative process that involves describing the pain it takes to complete it – as climbers and mountaineers do for their routes.

Some examples of these range from The Leg Burner and Skid, Tree, Pedal to Pink Floyd – so named because the route passes through a ruined wall.

On the other hand, road cycling segments tend to be a little more urbane and generic.

Luncarty to Stanley Straight Bit and Past the School are functional but hardly inspirational.

And it’s not just in the UK. I recently rode the brutal ascent Valley of the Tears in Gran Canaria.

A segment is named GC606, not really the inspirational moniker that fits with a climb that may well rank as one of the most spectacular in Europe.

Although there are exceptions, the overwhelming evidence points to off-road segment names being more imaginative.

Ultimately, in the grander scheme of things it makes not one jot of difference. Who, apart from me, cares whether a climb is called Up to the B6099 Junction or The Punisher? Probably no one but I know which one I would rather ride.

It is like the difference between reading an instruction manual and a literary classic.

So if you are creating a new Strava segment, if only for my sake, please come up with an imaginative name for it.

Where to ride: Glen Isla – OS Landranger 1:50,000 Map 44.

Suitable for: Off-road bikes on forest vehicle tracks.

Distance: Seven miles/12km for basic circular route. Start: Freuchies NO225608.

Description: This route heads north from Freuchies and takes a circular route around the Crock to the northeast of the Backwater Reservoir. There are numerous options to extend the route taking in Glen Finlet and then heading into Glen Prosen and other tracks around Glen Taitney. There are also some single track sections to be explored around Craigie Law and Cairn Hill to the north and south of the Crock.