I’d just like to tell everyone about our 24 hrs event at ALbion Hills Ontario. the five of us were the only unicycle team there.
We had two goals were trying to reach. To get two 17.5Km laps off each, and to beat a bike team in our categorie, or any categorie. We each rode two laps, and came 31st out of 32! We had ten laps, the other team had 8 or 9.
It was the most tiring ride I’ve put myself through (and then again in the dark) and I am thouroughly exhausted, and tightening up
We were very well received, with the announcer puicking me out of the mass start, and announcing ,"Oh my god, there’s a unicyclist in there! Give it up for the guy on one wheel! (or something very similar) And the whole crowd went nuts. Each time we passed spectators, they’d go hysterical.
Typical responses on the trail…You guys are nuts, my hat’s off to you guys, i thought i was crazy, UNICYCLE! But only Jeff had the announcer say (when approaching the finish line, “Hey, that guy lost his other wheel!”
I had an incredible time, as did everyone I’m sure, and would recommend this to anybody (train for it though!)
> You beat me to the post Brian.
>
> While the English (hats off to you guys and gals, especially Joe!) were
at
> the Redbull 24 hour event this past weekend a 5 person unicycle team in
> Ontario also participated in a 24 hour event.
>
> Brian MacKenzie, Richard Aschenbrenner, Ian Cox, Jeff Groves and myself
> decided to enter the 24 Hours of Summer Solstice held at Albion Hills,
> Ontario only a few weeks before the event snagging one of the last team
> spots available. It turned out to be quite the event … 290 teams with
> over 1900 riders in total.
>
> The course was 17.5km (approx 11 miles) and the most technical 24 hour
> course I’ve ever seen (I’ve done 9 thus far … most of which were on
> bike). The course definitely wasn’t Cokerable as tough rooty singletrack
> made up a quarter of the course. The rest of the course was rolling
double
> track with a few short and steep climbs. Ian and myself pre-rode the
course
> last Wednesday and were able to clear it all except for 3 of the uphills,
> which proved more efficient to walk up.
>
> The course changed dramatically come race weekend. It rained Friday
causing
> the rooty singletrack to be extremely slippery and there were some nice
> muddy sections. For the most part the course wasn’t too bad, but it was a
> long ride. It was extremely hot and humid both days (31 Celsius … 38
with
> the humidex). Our lap times ranged anywhere from 1:45 - 2:45 and we each
> pulled off 2 laps for a total of 10 laps. The night laps were extremely
> tricky, even bikers were falling all over the place and a few people
broke
> bones.
>
> All in all it was a great weekend … tough, but all the comments from
> people made it amazing.
>
> The coolest thing … we didn’t come last!
>
> I’ll post pictures soon.
>
> Carl
>
>
Great stuff! Looks like a ton of fun. And the camp site looks a whole lot
nicer than we had at Laguna Seca too. Way to go beating that bike team too!
At Unicon, we have to figure out which of these 24 hours events to all do
next year. It’s possible we could have 4 or more teams if we plan it right.
The results are in and out of 322 teams we beat 20 of them.
that includes all the solo riders and mixed and womens teams
the results can be found at http://www.chicoracing.com/results114.htm
our team name was singlespeeders
Nathan Hoover <nathan@movaris.com> wrote:
> At Unicon, we have to figure out which of these 24 hours events to all do
> next year. It’s possible we could have 4 or more teams if we plan it right.
And how cool would that be, proper unicycle 24 hr racing. We might even
managae to find a bike team we could ALL beat, or even that two teams
could beat. How gutted do you think they would be. I could drop an e-mail
to Pat Adams the Red Bull organiser and see if they would waive entry fees
for international unicycle teams?
sarah
Unicon 11 ~ Washington USA.~ July 25 - Aug 2 2002
The world unicycle convention and championships. http://www.nwcue.org
