Ouch, That Hurts

My arms are really sore from Sunday's races.  In the 45+ race I bunny-hopped two log barriers every lap.  They were only about a foot high.  I was flying over the logs, lifting both wheels at the same time rather than the slower front-wheel-then-real-wheel "bronco" style hop.  I was feeling confident, but I chose to run the two traditional barriers, about 1.5 feet high.  I have always been able to bunny-hop, but in cyclocross races going so hard that I'm usually near the end of my physical rope, I've always been too scared to hop the big barriers.  If you miss and smack a wheel on a barrier at speed you could easily end up on your face.  Also you have to hop the first barrier cleanly because if you don't there is no time to set up your hop over the second barrier.

In the singlespeed race something came over me.  The two large traditional barriers were not too close together, so without really thinking much about it I bunny-hopped them nearly every lap.  I almost always got over the first barrier doing the flying lift without even touching it and doing a flying lift/bronco hybrid style hop to get over the second barrier.  The second one was not always clean, but I made it every time.

The 45+ race had six laps with two hops per lap over the logs.  The singlespeed race was nine laps with four barriers per lap.  That makes a total of 48 bunny-hops.  No wonder my arms hurt.  Here is more than you would ever want to read on the subject with video:

http://www.cxmagazine.com/to-hop-or-not-bunny-hopping-cyclocross-barriers