Cyclocross Barrier-Free?

Deterrent, Impediment, Encumbrance, Hinderance
Maybe it's time to reconsider barriers in cyclocross. Let's face it, they get in the way. I've read complaints lately about their nuisance factor. It's true. They slow things down. They make you get off the bike. That's inconvenient.

I have some options:

• Ramp them. If two barriers are used, spread them farther apart and ramp up to them, then ramp back down. Or, put them closer together, ramp up, ride across a non-slip surface, then ramp comfortably back down.
  

• I've seen photos of races in Oregon with five or more barriers in a row. Blasphemy. Unless, that is, they have the non-slip top platform installed. (Sounds like the beginning of a cottage industry to me.)

Cover These, No-Slip

• Introduce the no-barrier option. Offer a path to ride alongside for those who don't want to use barriers . That's done on singletrack mountain bike trails all the time with logs and other obstacles. There's no shame in staying on the bike. Zig-zagging through would allow for some interesting encounters. Whoops, scratch that. That adds another challenge and our goal here is to ease the riders' anxieties. (Though it is called cycloCROSS).

Around-the-Side-Option

• Declare a no-barrier-at-the-bottom-of-hill-rule. Who came up with run-ups anyway? Let the toughest prove they can make it up that wall still clipped in. Barrier laced run-ups create too much equality in the race. It's like Woody Allen's comment about having children (paraphrasing here), any fool can run-up and usually does. For crying out loud, even C racers can do it!

• Don't allow the publication of photos from the early days of cyclocross where racers carried their bikes through brambles, up forested hills, and across ravines. It gives the sense that CX is about ungainly, sometimes odd, often ruthless, challenge. For that matter, don't look at the current European race courses with their wickedly strewn run for your life obstacles.

• Allocate some races as clip-in only. Anyone caught unclipping will be put in the penalty box (borrowing from another sport here) and mercilessly cowbelled for a specified period of time.

I See Ouch In This Man's Future

• Make the barriers lower. Two, three inches tops. Who made the standard 16" height anyway? It's like, three people in the world can hop them regularly. The rest of us are made to figure out how to get off, jump, and look graceful as we stutter step up, bumble over, and fumble back on. All with--get this--bike in hand. I have had an occasion or two when, on remount, I missed the saddle altogether and landed on the 32mm Grifo Challenge. Ouch! Yes, there are remount issues, even if you do make it to the saddle. Particularly perilous for boys. Besides, if we really wanted to hurdle we'd be in track, not CX. There's a lot more money in track, by the way.

Should We Limit the Number of Those Who Can Cross Barriers at One Time?

• It would be more civilized to pass the bikes on to handlers before we encounter the barriers, so we wouldn't have to carry our bikes over. They'd smoothly run them to the other side for us, handing them back (perhaps with a bit of mud wiped free?). As bikers we don't lift much, so why create that strain? Should our arms hurt more than our legs after the race is over?
  

• Logs: ban them. They're dirty and they have knots.

They Climbed the Fence?

A Modest Proposal
Or, we can work with reshaping the term itself because I think that's where the crux of the problem lies. The word barrier is so laden with the weight of its own baggage. Think about it, barriers imply an impediment to progress, an obstacle in the way of change.

So, what about changing the name. We can call them Opportunities. We approach them with change (dismount) and an uplift (leap). What can be more positive? We fly over them, and what can be more free than flight, even for those few fleeting moments? That, above all, is mud in the face of any obstacle. And when we've had our flight, we leap back into the saddle to propel ourselves forward toward new opportunities.

Flying!

Yes, oh yes, my fellow CXers, we shall overcome (that...hunky...thing).

Next week we'll tackle weather. It's time we stood up to cold, rain, mud, and snow. Make your chattering voice heard. Brrr.