In my case, it's years of muscle memory. I, too, can lose the hop when I do it slowly, but at this point I'm faster in a race when I stutter.

The problem with the stutter-step is that there's a tiny pulling back action when you lose forward momentum for just a second. This is even more troublesome on uphill re-mounts. The difference is probably only a second or two, but that adds up over a race.

And it looks much cooler not to hop.

It's definitely a timing issue in my mind. I can visualize it correctly. I even dreamed about it the other night. When I learned to ski, I dreamed about how to carve a turn correctly and suddenly I could do it. I thought maybe the same would hold true for this but it didn't happen.

And now it's just a case of me being stubborn! I can do just about anything I want to do on a bike and I can't get rid of the stupid hop!