What's up with the Euro' thing?
Dave Carr, August 2000
 

Trends	Cyclocross racing is surprisingly trendy, not in the fashion sense, but in the trends that develop year to year--like the increase in participation by NORBA off-road riders a few years back. The evolution of race courses, and the way they're ridden, is another trend in the making. In the days when NORBA guys got  involved (in promoting 'cross races as well as racing), the courses became more like NORBA courses--that is, short-track mountain bike courses. (for example, see this article on the subject). In the past year or two, however, the pendulum has swung towards "Euro" courses. For example, take last year's Surf City #2 in Watsonville. In a two-mile course there were something like sixteen turns, and only four barriers. It was also a pretty flat and fast course.  Jeff Clark, promoter of Surf City, has cited two factors as inspiration for his course changes. One is that Surf City is getting much bigger fields, so you need a wide-open course to fit them all. The other, and more important trend, is the increasing visibility of the European race scene, with Americans taking medals at World's, and more coverage of World's races available in the US on videotape.  Jeff Clark, promoter of Surf City, has cited both of those factors as inspiration for his courses. Watch some of those tapes and you'll see where our new courses are coming from. Those Euro courses are all full of turns, often making a long race out of a small space by snaking the course back and forth all over a hillside. It's great for promoters (less land required) and for spectators (see more of the course from any one spot). But how is it for the riders?	'Cross star Tim Johnson hops a barrier at the Boston Cross event in Massachusetts.  Jonathan McElvery photo.
Bunny-hops	Another Euro trend making its way here is bunny-hop barriers. I don't mean little dinky ones like they once had in the SuperCup -- these are full size, but they're being placed singly, or in pairs something like twenty feet apart. The best guys can hop 'em all, especially if they're on mountain bike. Bunnyhops aren't a new thing -- Euro-pro Danny de Bie hopped his way to a world's win ten years ago -- but in general there has been an unspoken agreement that we'd all get off for everything and the competition would be about who had the best transition skill.  But now, watch those Euro videos and you'll see young guns like Sven Nijs and Jonny Sundt hopping every barrier on their bikes, and gaining gobs of seconds on the field every time they do it. The UCI seems to have added their approval, too, by rewriting the rules: now barriers must be four meters apart. That's about thirteen feet --guess what, the perfect distance so that a rider such as Nijs can hop them one after the other.  Nijs is a pro at hopping and he's gaining rock-star cult status for it. And now guys are doing it here too, like Justin Robinson often does at Surf City, or as Jonny Sundt and Tim Johnson do elsewhere (see picture).  But I don't like it-- it's not good for 'cross.
Just say no!	OK, I know you're saying, 'cross is a made-up sport.  Everything goes.  If  some guy is good enough to hop, let him.  I respect the skill of the hoppers, but I don't agree with the promoter's choice to make hopping possible. First of all, skill or not, hopping is too much of a high-stakes move to be a reasonable strategic feature of a race.  Even the guys who hop will tell you: if you can't hop perfectly ten times out of ten, don't do it at all because the one time you miss will cost you all the time you gained on the previous nine.  Meanwhile, the less experienced racers have no way to improve their skills because the stakes are too high to practice hopping in a race. So, if you're a promoter, I encourage you to leave out bunnyhops, or at least make them smaller, single barriers. An example is the photo above--this one is only about eight inches high, low enough for most people but still requiring some skill.  In the same event,  Boston Cross even has one special barrier with "JUMP! JUMP!" stenciled on it to get the idea across.  John Elgart, master-class CX racer and promoter of the Sacramento 'cross series, sums up the arguments nicely: "When we laid out Sacramento, we tried to avoid [bunnyhops] -- for the following 3 reasons: "1. Too much bunnyhopping changes the nature of the sport. A 20mph hop saves the rider as much as 5 seconds, and this gives the hopper too much advantage. (A slower, say 12 mph, bunnyhop is much fairer.) "2. High speed bunnyhops damage equipment and may damage the rider. Even a good bunnyhopper is going to biff when tired, and usually this means a flat and a flattened wheel. I don't think it's a good idea to design elements that will most likely cause damage. Again low speed bunnyhops are much better in this regard. "3. Bunnyhops cause conflict between riders. The best way to negate a bunnyhopper is to get in front of them and hesitate at the barrier. This can be dangerous to both riders, and courses shouldn't be designed that encourage riders to do this."  --John Elgart

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