Bunnyhopping in Cyclocross

October 2013

It is a key question in cyclo-cross; whether to bunnyhop the barriers or not. But is bunnyhopping in cyclocross really worth the risk?

Often you’ll hear riders say that it’s just as fast to get off and run the barriers, despite the fact that time and time again we see examples of riders gaining that all important advantage by being able to bunnyhop and get on the power straight after an obstacle. You just have to watch Sven Nys in action and you’ll no doubt see the benefits.

There again, there is a reason why Nys is the world champ and it seems that he can bunnyhop consistently well, no matter where or when in a race, and if you can’t do it as consistently then you may end up looking like this…

You can see that the guy in the video above didn’t get going straight away afterwards, presumably still feeling the effects of the crash, which could have been more serious had his head collided with the second barrier…

And in this next video, which features Todd Wells who took us through the basics in our first cyclocross training video, you can see how long it can take for you to recover if you do get it wrong…

It seems to be that when riders get tired they have trouble doing a perfect bunnyhop. If you are new to bunnyhopping, then you’ll see that its a two part process: a wheelie first, followed by a back wheel lift, and it’s this latter part that tiredness seems to ruin. This next stop-motion video shows you the correct technique very clearly…

So if you decide that you still have to be able to bunnyhop, then here’s a great video from Canadian rider, Kris Westwood on just how to do it. It’s a bit longer than the previous videos but, as with all of Kris’ videos, is one of the best we’ve found to demonstrate good technique.

At the end of the day you have to decide if you can bunnyhop or not; often it’s simply a matter of confidence and only practice can give you that confidence. Then on race day make sure you look at each set of barriers and take conditions into account when deciding if its a viable option. Everyday is different and if these videos teach us anything it’s that during the race you need to have a point at which you accept that you are too tired to continue bunnyhopping, no matter how confident you are, before you end up going over the bars…