There is different types of mountainbiking like downhill , cross country , freeride ,all mountain.

Downhill is high speed , down a track with drops and big jumps. It can be technical with tight corners or difficult rocky sections witch are extremely challenging . The Downhill bike would have big travel around 200mm suspension


This is the current downhill world champions bike , Danny Hart who beat the french rider Damien  Spagnolo by 11 seconds . Usually you would get 2 or 3 seconds on the leader but he got 11, wich shows how good he is.  

Cross country is generally a slower but longer race of a circuit track and is a few laps.It requires more fitness than downhill and other types of mountainbiking . The bikes are different aswell they are hardtails , they dont have any back suspension and the front suspension has about 90-120mm travel . They are lighter and have more gears .   



Freeride is like downhill but its not timed and there isn't really any freeride events. Theres not stages on a freeride track , it has more of a flow to it , unlike some downhill races. The bike does not have as much travel as the downhill bike and would be a bit lighter with more gears.


All mountain is in between downhill  and cross country , the bike generally is full suspension you can do most of the stuff you could do with a cross country bike but you can do rough stuff as well . They would have the same amount of gears as a cross country bike but more travel.