Peach Weber couldn't have summed it up better: "Sprüngli is everywhere!". In a figurative sense to the sport of mountain biking: Sprüngli is everywhere. Big kickers, small tables, high drops. There's hardly a new trail that doesn't demand airtime from us.

My enthusiasm for new mountain bike trails often lasts exactly three turns. Then it comes. The first kicker. Or as I call it: the end of comfort. Flying is not my thing. As soon as a jump piles up in front of me, I dutifully take the chicken line. And usually in series - kickers are known to come in packs.

The tragic thing is that these jumps are always right on the ideal line. Sure, where else? An elegantly guided chicken line that smoothly maintains my flow? Not a chance. Instead, there's an emergency exit with a flow loss guarantee. If, like me, you want to keep both tires firmly on the ground, you have to get your feet on the ground before every jump, rush through an improvised little path and then laboriously build up speed again. Even the so-called rollable tables feel more like the bloated uncle of a kerb for us non-flyers.

And then there are those drops. Heel. Flat. Zack. Thanks too. I seriously ask myself: Which mountain biker has ever said when building a trail: "I'd like a meter-high drop with as flat a landing as possible."?

Why on earth?

Why do all new trails have to have jumps? I can't even manage twenty centimetres of airtime, so I'm part of the silent majority. The more new trails are created, the more I feel like a dinosaur in the bike park.

But maybe it's not an objective problem at all. Maybe it's just an echo of my own ageing. I come from the bunnyhop era, the next generation indulges in the tablewhip. While I'm still upset about the kicker, they fly elegantly around my ears. Perhaps my anger is not a protest, but nostalgia. Maybe I have to accept it: I am someone who has stayed grounded. Literally and figuratively. And yes, I hardly ever get the rear wheel off the ground either, but that's another story.

More blog posts by Thomas Giger

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