Continental’s Olympic and World Championship XC winning Race King Protection is the fastest rolling MTB tire I’ve ever ridden, but it’s not for the nervous

I’ve been testing tons of race rubber for our best XC tires buyers guide and Continental’s minimal tread Race King is the fastest of the lot. But what does an ultra-fast Olympic and World Championship XCO Mountain Bike winning tire feel like on the trail – apart from making it feel like you’ve got a motor?

Design and build

I’ve been a bit misleading saying the tire I tested is an Olympic and World Championship XCO winner as both Tom Pidcock and Pauline Ferrand Prevot use a special ‘Pro-Limited’ version that’s not available to the public. In fact, the public options are pretty simple with a non-tubeless, wire bead ‘Performance’, a mid-range tubeless ‘Shieldwall’, and the ‘Protection’ version I've tested here. This supersedes both the old Supersonic and more recent RaceSport models. It uses a three-ply 60tpi carcass with an additional free-floating ‘Protection’ layer sandwiched between them. It currently only comes in 2.2in width but in 26, 27.5 and 29er sizes, with brown wall ‘Bernstein’ versions in 27.5 and 29.

Protection tires use an XC MTB-specific version of the ‘Black Chili’ compound while Performance and Shieldwall use a ‘Pure Grip’ rubber recipe.

Performance

The Race King tread pattern has been around for ages and prior to the 2023 World Championships and 2024 Olympics, the tire had slipped off a lot of racer’s rubber radars. The current tire is actually a second-generation model though with slight changes to tread and a smaller carcass. At 56mm wide it’s absolutely bang on the claimed 2.2in size and only 1mm narrower than allegedly ‘2.4in’ Maxxis Forekaster and Schwalbe Wicked Will tires and 1mm wider than Hutchinson Skeleton ‘2.3in’ tires. They’re a peach to fit too, easing onto the rim without needing levers or excess wrestling. They’ve then popped up to a secure, spillage and bubble-free fit with a track pump on several different rims we’ve used them on.

Despite the quad-layer and accurate sizing, they’re over 100g lighter than most current generation XC tires at 630g. That makes them super fast to accelerate and the very low tread and a lively carcass are blisteringly quick. That’s not a casual comment either as I’ve been comparing different XC tires from a ton of brands all year. Even against the best of the rest, the Race Kings still feel noticeably faster rolling, with a genuine ‘it feels like I’ve got a low power motor fitted’ vibe to their ridiculous rolling speed. With the same tiny triangular knob pattern carried over onto the intermediate zone and shoulder, they don’t lose any speed in turns or if you sink into soft ground.

Despite the light weight, the carcass doesn’t buckle, stumble or burp sealant if you drop pressures into the teens either. While they don’t feel as super supple and compliant as Schwalbe’s Super Race, they’re damped enough to stop excessive pin balling. I’ve not had any punctures while testing yet either and there's been zero carcass damage despite some hefty rim to rock clunks – they’re E-25 e-MTB approved too.

Considering the comically low, close spaced tread, the in-line grip isn’t as bad as you’d expect either. Yes, you need to be subtle with your stopping but they don’t lock up as soon as you touch the levers on trail strength brakes like Vittoria’s Peyote tires do. There’s acceptable drive traction available if you temper torque levels and I surprised myself by nursing them up greasy, grassy, clay, and loam tech climbs that other riders struggled on with trail tires.

While the rounded shape makes them easy to drop into corners, the tread opens up even further in the intermediate zone so grip actually reduces. While there’s more of a closed rank of knobs at the shoulder, they’re still too low to add significant turning bite. That’s OK on hard, dry surfaces, but on loose or muddy trails you’ll definitely be pushing your luck if you’re not backing off your bravery significantly. The tread is narrower than the carcass too so off-camber grip is also non-existent and the sidewalls have no protection against scuff damage. Those boulder heaps that they love to put on modern XC tracks (and which occur naturally on the moors around here), bounce the bald sidewalls around like a mosh pit too.

Verdict

Even by XC standards, Continental’s Race Kings are ridiculously fast rolling and will genuinely give you e-MTB vibes in terms of how they climb and accelerate. In fact, they opened or closed gaps on group rides so fast my ‘mates’ were actually deliberately switching to hike-a-bike climbs to stop me leaving them for dead. Obviously they extend that efficiency and easy speed to epic marathon / bikepacking / big gravel use too and we loved the way they added speed to the drop bar variant of Pace’s RC429. They’re easy to fit, light and seem tough and puncture-proof enough for trail use so far.

Even on the back wheel, the minimal tread needs skilled and subtle use to keep connected in a straight line though. Lack of shoulder grip means cornering is often an exercise in desperate hope though and rocks and roots can shunt the bald shoulders all over the place.

Tech specs: Continental Race King Protection

• Price: $60.00 / £68.45 / €64.95
• Sizes: 26, 27.4 and 29 x 2.2in
• Options: Protection (tested), Shieldwall and Performance
• Weight: 628g (29 x 2.2in Protection)