Video: Mountain Biker Gaps the Tour of Utah Road Race

 And he doesn’t have to biff the landing to cause a problem. The surprise and distraction is enough to cause someone else’s crash.

 Yep, it was cool the first few times but let's all stop now before people get hurt

 I kind of feel like this as well. The intentions may be harmless but when doing this you could end up creating a situation you never wanted. Its a lets just do this mentality i kind of like but i also urge to tell everyone ever trying this (or thinking about it) to really thoroughly evaluate the risks.

Respect for the jump tho.

 Agree with you guys. At least in some cases the gapper flies above the racers with a significant margin, but even in such case things could go wrong. In this case the margin ain't so big. If a racer had been on the external line close to the range cone, looks like he would have been less than 1m possibly only 50cm from their head. This is quite irresponsible.

 Cliched and needs to stop.

 @nvranka I agree. And that he was putting other people at risk without their permission is the thing that is dicey. I'd have no problem someone jumping over me if I said 'sure give it a go.' But if some yahoo just jumped over me without warning, I'd be less than happy. You can be a hooligan without being a jerk.

 So foolish and reckless. I'm surprised that Pinkbike editors are giving these guys any exposure.

 You can seen how close this was to possibly going bad, too.

If you pause the video near his landing, it sure looks like he would have struck the rider with green jersey/orange bike had that rider been 10 or so feet further forwards.

I have no doubt that this is exaggerated by the camera angle, but the way that green jersey/orange bike rider swerves after the MTB'er lands suggests to me that the MTB'er crossed directly through his line of sight.

I'm a massive freeride advocate, but I don't think this is doing the discipline a lot of good, regardless of how stoked people were.

 @bvd453: that’s the whole thing: risks shouldn’t be mitigated. The roadies seem to carry more than the "freerider"

 @wiscobiker: let’s enrich your vocabulary: grown up, responsile are the words you tried to say.

 @wiscobiker: no pinkbike hasn’t gone soft. Everyone has just grown up and realized that acting like self centered idiots isn’t actually cool.

 I saw below somewhere that he got permission to do this ahead of time, so just an FYI my OP is a little misdirected.

Oh and on PB becoming soft....I dno if this is a question of being soft, but it’s definitely a maturity thing. It’s more of a recent development for me, but I like to have control of my health and destiny. If I break my neck by making my own choice to try something, I am comfortable with that. If someone lands on me doing something I didn’t give permission for them to do over a race im in....well that’s something different entirely.

I don’t think it’s being soft to not want to relinquish control over your own well being.

 @colinfurm: Taking risks on yourself is one thing, forcing dangerous risk upon others is simply idiotic and irresponsible.

 Agree, unsafe and in poor taste.

 NVM - he got permission from the land owners, not the race organizers or the riders. Wow...bad look.

 Really glad the perception of this stunt has finally gone this way.

 Agreed - stop being insta famous and become actual famous...like do it at a race event or something...where it counts.

 @colinfurm: you're missing the point entirely...no one here is shitting on the rider for sending the gap. It's specifically that he is doing it over a road race that he did not notify organizers nor riders he would be jumping over, endangering folks that didn't agree to have anything to do with it.

If the roadies were OK with it, then obviously there would be no problem.

I am the last person to complain about someone taking "too much risk" when the only one they are endangering is themselves.

I've started to feel a bit weird lately watching the likes of Zink try to break records in front of his loving wife and kid...but she married him, so I guess I'll keep that judgement to myself. Can't change that man, that's for sure. Again though, he doesn't endanger anyone except himself.

 @wiscobiker: dude I’m not sure what you’re not getting. I’m friends with Danny too and while this was well-intentioned and rad and all, it was so close to going catastrophically. If this was 5-10’ taller it would’ve been fine. But knowing it was going to be a close call to casing a dude’s head, and doing it anyways was super foolish on Danny’s part. Endangering your own life is fine, but endangering others lives isn’t cool, especially when they didn’t even consent to being in harm’s way. It would be like setting up a rally racing course right next to an elementary school playground, but racing it during school hours for dramatic effect. Danny is a super nice and humble kid and an absolute shredder, and I love the guy, but this was super poor judgment on his part.

 @wiscobiker @ttttttttttttt @colinfurm If you're having trouble getting this, put literally any risky activity in place of "gapping a road race." Try, say, "driving drunk." The reason you can send gaps OR drive drunk all day in your yard is because if you f*ck up you're the only one that gets hurt and that's fair. The reason you can't send gaps OR drive drunk around other people is because if you f*ck up, THEY get hurt, and that's not fair.

Sick gap and all but if you had slipped a pedal or made some other stupid mistake that we all know happens you could have caused life-altering injuries on multiple people which is coincidentally the reasoning behind drunk driving laws (and many, many others).

 @bvd453: "gapping a roadie race (or a street, or trains, or a pack of llamas) is pretty cool provided risks are mitigated to the rider and spectators."

I'd love to see his risk assessment and management procedures

 Amen to that. I'd go as far as saying this particular gap was a fail given the roadies felt like they had to duck.

 YOU ARE LAAAAAAAME. GO HOME

 He could have cased a roadies head and he sure was close on this one. That would be great for the mountain bike world... honestly it was cool the first time. But now its just some random's screaming for attention.. It would be an easy case against him in court.

 @Lookinforit: Pemby train gap is so much more gnarly than jumping a peleton - train or no train

 @djyosh: I don't know the context of this comment, but while the train gap is gnarly from the perspective that it requires huge balls and has massive consequences as any big gap does, the landing is pretty mellow and the run out is wide and welcoming.

Some gaps have both janky take-offs and landings which make then much worse, even if they are smaller than the train gap.

I forget who attempted the first peleton gap, but that landing was super raw and gnarly and they crashed hard because of it...believe it was a pro with a lot of preperation too? not sure.

 @nvranka: His rear shock failed on landing causing his crash iirc.. Likely because the landing was not ideal, but also shocks just weren't as good back then.

 Yep that was close

 Yep. DO NOT want to see this show up on Friday Fails! Not funny.

 @PinkyScar PB: the website that asks if climbing is out of fashion while posting 10 stories of people flying through the air every morning.

 sorry, I accidently downvoted you. I have to agree with you, this stuff has to stop. Only a matter of time until some Joe hurts himself/someone other with this kind of stunt.

 @kanasasa they'd be welcome to ride under one of the drops on the DHWC tracks I suppose

 OOOOOF

 @kanasasa: I see what you did there.

 @conoat: Yes and they take that risk when racing... They're not letting someone not in the race take another unnecessary risk for them

 @conoat:

The other road racers are an assumed calculated risk, The stunt is not. Still nbd compared to a car not signaling a turn across bike lane, for perspective

 @conoat: ha ha- you said 'gaping them'.

 Oh I didn't see that he got permission...I guess that sort of negates my comment above. Thanks for sharing.

 He got permissino? Where did you read that? Why did he ride the trail down to avoid getting in trouble if he got permission?

 There's no way he got permission for this stunt in the Tour of Utah. The organizers are so uptight that Floyd's team had to change name for the race.

 "After that, I snapped back to reality and rode down a trail because I didn’t want to risk getting in trouble."

-- Does not sound like he got permission at all.

 He only got permission from the land owners...not the race...so still a prick

 It looks more like half a second or so. The stop motion looks slightly slower than reality and even there it appeared like less than a second. If people continue to do this, it won't be a matter of "if", but "when".

 Seems that mentality has been perpetuated because it has been rewarded instead of discouraged. Glad to see so many people on here condemning this, maybe there is hope for society after all.

 ^nonk pbff... In regards to getting some proper DH and freeride trails built outside of Deer Valley...So f'ing sick of hearing that this kinda stuff has an impact on what kind of trails get built in Park City....We've been holding our breath for more technical and downhill directional trails in Park City for years. And somehow we gotta sit on the edge of our seats and beg and bat our pretty little eyelashes like good little boys on good behavior lists to the superior dirt roadies to build us some proper steep trails ....f' it. Im over it. Like its ever going to happen. Every year they put in another brown sidewalk and designate another trail to uphill only. There is clearly no interest to build more advanced trails outside the bike park. Mountain bikers have been making it clear for years that we want more directional dowhhill only trails. Problem is Park City is run by old hikers and dirt roadies. So f' it ...think a lot of mountain bikers are just pissed off and fed up. Like I said we been patient and advocating for better trails for years and all we get is more brown sidewalk. There was some good stuff happening at Canyons oh guess what it all got torn down...nice frickn work.

Not sayin this is all an excuse to mistreat people, everyone should be treated with respect, but theres a lot of dickhead hikers in PC too who place logs and rocks across trails and jumps but you never hear about it. Because guess what mountain bikers dont run the show.

Fact is PC's trail network is dated. More and More people are using the trails. We need more directional trails to reduce user conflict and collisions. Until the trails foundation gets their heads out there asses and stops building weak multi directional brown sidewalk trails there are going to be more and more user conflicts.

 @whatyousaid: Totally agree with 99%.
But Canyons is Vail. All of that has been regraded for a new lift. Except Canyons DH, which really didn't get ridden much because it was an actual hard trail. It was a little cartoon park anyway. Put the pressure on Vail and they're likely to respond because they can make money.

Most of the other stuff is Mountain Trails who are exactly as you described.

 Fair enough the guy is called Berin Klawiter. He probably would have called himself Bearklaw even if Bearclaw wouldn't have become such a legend.

 Sorry but California wine is better.

 And a Boris Johnson speech at the same time, it will unite our countries

 U sure thats not the oops i just crapped my pants tuck?

 Wot