Maria Larkin is trying to nail this bunny hop. Not the easy kind, where you pull your whole bike off the ground in one swift jump. Larkin, an elite racer who came up through Chicago’s bike scene, mastered that one long ago. On a recent Wednesday night in Humboldt Park, Larkin was aiming for the harder kind, the kind that allows you to jump over even bigger hurdles.
The bike-obsessed Belgians invented the sport to give them something to do during the harsh winter off-season; cyclocross racers are like mailmen, competing in rain, snow, sleet, and hail. Bike handling is especially crucial under these conditions; a racer can save precious seconds by bunny hopping an obstacle rather than dismounting her bike.
Racing solo at the international level means that Larkin also lacks the kind of entourage many pro racers have. Instead Larkin is traveling to Cross Vegas with her unofficial support network: teammates Daphne Karagianis, who will act as Larkin’s manager, and Mia Moore, who will serve as pit mechanic. (If Larkin blows a tire or suffers another mechanical problem, Moore can swap out her wheels or otherwise repair her bike midrace.)
Larkin placed second at Irish nationals, fighting through a kind of deep mud unknown even to rainy Chicago summers. And although her podium finish—her highest-placing to date—put her on the radar, she feared it wouldn’t be enough to convince Cycling Ireland to grant her permission to race at Cross Vegas. She began petitioning them in June.
“There is a view that this criteria is too difficult,” Liffey said. “I’d accept that.” He says his group plans to revisit the selection criteria for world events as early as this winter.
