Aggressive riding skills are a bigger part of cyclocross every year. Bunny hopping the barriers is now common both women and men’s Elite races and more and more, riders try to find the quickest way over obstacles without getting off their bikes.
Cody Kaiser became a viral sensation at the 2014 Boulder Nationals when he rode up the Belgian stairs at Valmont Park, and Ellen Noble added stair-hopping to her impressive skill set this year. This year at Nationals, Christopher Blevins (and Kaiser and Tobin Ortenblad) showed us sometimes you can just jump over the stairs entirely.
Blevins getting airborne at the stairs. #cxnats pic.twitter.com/acizJwZ656
— Cyclocross Magazine (@cyclocross) January 14, 2018
Although ’cross riders are increasingly less earth-bound, a couple of videos we dug up show aerial shows are nothing new in cyclocross. The videos for our Throwback Thursday are from the 1980s, but high-flying five-time 1970s U.S. national champion Laurence Malone shows us getting air dates back even further.
Laurence Malone won five U.S. national championships. © Cyclocross Magazine
Old School Stair Hopping
Stair-hopping, Germany, 1985. photo: YouTube capture.
Although Instagram and YouTube were not around, stair hopping has been around for decades. This video from a 1985 race in Germany shows a rider hopping up several sets of stairs. It also features home country hero Klaus-Peter Thaler sporting the rainbow jersey after the first of his two world championships.
Bunny Hopping With Toe Clips
Bunny hopping with toe clips. photo: YouTube capture.
Bunny hopping is also nothing new in cyclocross. Another German video from 1988 shows riders bunny hopping barriers long before the days of clipless pedals. Many how-to guides recommend learning to bunny hop on flat pedals, but these riders show toe clips might be a happy medium.
Who Hopped It Better?
Vote for your favorite hopper:
1985 German rider
2018 Christopher Blevins
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