CrossVegas 12: Crunchy Barrier Taco
If you got the speed and skills, bunny hop the barriers
In Cyclocross, you can gain time on your opponents by riding over the barriers, “bunny hopping” them instead of dismounting, carrying your bike, and remounting. Jeremy Powers does that here and note how he’s 1/2 a bike length ahead of those carrying their bikes.
Molly almost makes it
A Crunchy Barrier Taco
The risk though is a spectacular crash in front of the media and cycling industry at CrossVegas. That’s Molly Cameron, a highly-skilled pro who likely just bobbled a bit there and would hop that barrier successfully every other time. Seeing this photo, we thought the sport needs names for its crashes, like that was one crunchy barrier taco from Molly! Mark V. who took these photos, told me
Those were low barriers that about one in ten just bunny hopped them. Molly’s second hop was late and low, lost momentum, and the rear wheel ramped the up the barrier… ass over kettle.
See that barrier section again in super slo-mo and more high-rez photos on G+ and Flickr. I raced those same barriers in the Wheeler Dealer category, but did NOT try to hop them. Kept the rubber side down and on my shoulder.